Timeless wisdom and a practical program

for vibrant health from the forgotten

1910 classic!

The Science of
Being Well
By Wallace D. Wattles
Edited by & with new material by Dr. Alexandra Gayek
A gift to you from The Science of Being Well Network
www.scienceofbeingwell.net

www.scienceofbeingwell.net The Science of Being Well 1

 The Science of Being Well
©2004 Alexandra Gayek, N.D. All rights reserved.
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Disclaimer: Nothing in this book is intended to provide treatment for any disease, disability, or medical con-
dition, nor to substitute for personal, individual medical care from a qualified physician. The reader is advised
to check with his or her own physician prior to following any recommendations given in this book or any of its
references. Every attempt has been made to provide accurate information. However, the reader is on notice
that the information in this book has been compiled and written to address general principles. It is not in-
tended as specific advice for any individual. Thus, the personal application of any information provided
herein is the sole responsibility of the user and, if implemented, would be applied at his or her own risk.

www.scienceofbeingwell.net The Science of Being Well 2

Contents
Introduction .............................................................................................................. .4
Author’s Preface ....................................................................................................... .9
Chapter 1: The Principle of Health ...................................................................... .11
Chapter 2: The Foundations of Faith .................................................................. .14
Chapter 3: Life and Its Organisms ...................................................................... .18
Chapter 4: What To Think .................................................................................... .21
Chapter 5: Faith ...................................................................................................... .25
Chapter 6: Use of the Will ..................................................................................... .29
Chapter 7: Health from God ................................................................................ .32
Chapter 8: Summary of the Mental Actions ...................................................... .35
Chapter 9: When To Eat ........................................................................................ .37
Chapter 10: What To Eat ....................................................................................... .43
Chapter 11: How To Eat........................................................................................ .48
Chapter 12: Hunger and Appetites ..................................................................... .53
Chapter 13: In a Nutshell ...................................................................................... .56
Chapter 14: Breathing ............................................................................................ .59
Chapter 15: Sleep ................................................................................................... .63
Chapter 16: Supplementary Instructions............................................................ .65
Chapter 17: A Summary of the Science of Being Well ...................................... .69
Historical Notes on When, What, and How to Eat ........................................... .71
Afterword ............................................................................................................... .79
Glossary ................................................................................................................... .85
Get This Life-Changing Book on Tapes or CDs! ............................................... .89
Get The Science of Getting Rich .............................................................................. .90
Get your free subscription to Be Well!™ ezine .................................................. .90
Join the Science of Being Well Network Affiliate Program! ............................ .90

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Chapter

Introduction
his is a radical book.

.T
... It was radical when it was published in 1910, and it is radical today.
When I first read The Science of Being Well, I thought, OF COURSE!
This is brilliant! Everyone should read this book! You may have a similar reac-
tion to this book if you’ve read Mr. Wattles’ first book, The Science of Getting
Rich, or if you believe that both thought and behavior affect health.
At first glance, I believed I already practiced much of what Mr. Wattles
teaches. But when I looked more closely I discovered there was a big difference
between what I was actually doing and what I thought I was doing. Then there
was a big leap from what I thought I was doing to the approach Mr. Wattles
describes.
Immediate and dramatic results
When I began actually to practice what he teaches (even imperfectly), the re-
sults were immediate and dramatic. After just one day of consciously changing
my eating habits to what Mr. Wattles recommends, I noticed an enormous
improvement in how I felt. As I continued to practice, I continued to feel better.
(And I was already feeling reasonably healthy before I read this book!)
I thought, if only I could get all my patients to read and follow this book!
Ninety percent of their problems would be resolved! An unforgettable image
came to mind of a couple of patients I had seen years ago while still a student
intern.
I remember so clearly these two women ...
One in her mid-90s had brought a friend in her early 80s who was suffering
from terrible abdominal pain. The younger woman lived in a nursing facility
and was so frail with osteoporosis that she could not bend to tie her shoes
without breaking her ribs. She looked stooped and sad, and could only talk of
her suffering, the problems at the nursing facility, the terrible food, the terrible
way she was treated. The older woman had brought her to us because she was
sure we would provide a positive, holistic approach that would improve her
friend’s spirits as well as her health.
I asked the older woman what she was doing to be in such apparently vi-
brant health and spirits. She joyfully reported that she worked in her garden
every day, ate fresh, healthy food, thanked God, and went dancing every week.

www.scienceofbeingwell.net The Science of Being Well 4

She told me her doctor was so impressed with her blood pressure and choles-
terol that he had measured them twice to make sure there wasn’t a mistake.
What she didn’t say was what was so obvious by looking at her and listening
to her — she loved her life and was bubbling with optimism, generosity, and
gratitude.
Which of these two would you like to resemble when you are beyond 80
years of age?
Determined to help you achieve a life of such vibrant health, I set about the
task of finding the original text of The Science of Being Well and preparing it for
you to download.
As I read it again and again, carefully considering each word, each concept,
each argument, each example, I began to have second thoughts. I said to my-
self:
I’m not so sure I agree with everything he says — some of it
disagrees with what I was taught and what I’ve believed as a
doctor and what I’ve recommended to my patients.
People without a background like mine as a Naturopathic Phy-
sician* may not understand the historical context or the language
or his references to all these different healing arts and may not
know how to adjust it to modern knowledge of nutrition.
If I’m going to encourage people to read it, prescribe it to all
my patients, stake my reputation on it, I have to define those
words, add sections, rewrite the parts that are medically out-
dated, and modernize the language.
Months of research pay off
So I spent several months wrestling with the text, adding, subtracting, chang-
ing the parts I thought needed changing. I had many conversations with Rebecca
Fine, who published The Science of Getting Rich online, teaches an excellent online
course, writes regularly about the principles taught by Wallace Wattles, and
has the best understanding of anyone I know about his work. (Thanks, Rebecca!)
I spent months finding and reading relevant books and articles. I read Mr.
Wattles’ New Science of Living and Healing and the two works on which his eat-
ing program is based — Edward Hooker Dewey, MD’s 1900 book, The No-
Breakfast Plan and The Fasting-Cure, and Horace Fletcher’s 1903 book, The A.B.-
Z. of Our Own Nutrition. I got out my notes on the history of nutrition and the
discovery of vitamins. I returned to my notes from the months of research I did
as a new doctor in 1997 to understand everything known about fasting so I
could responsibly guide my patients through fasting, cleansing and detoxifica-
tion programs.
I reread the medical history books required of me as a beginning student of
Naturopathic Medicine — all about the “Nature Cure” movement, about what

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was happening in Western medicine during the 19th and 20th centuries in Eu-
rope and America, and about how this fit with centuries-old Eastern medicine
(Chinese, Tibetan, Ayurvedic).
I found and read translations of everything written about nutrition by the
“father of modern medicine,” Hippocrates, around 400 B.C., and the works of
others who followed him. (His ideas still form the basis for the oath every phy-
sician — at least in the United States — takes before beginning to practice medi-
cine.) The different philosophies of Eastern and Western medicine alone can
get me talking for hours. When these are combined with spiritual philosophies,
you’ve got me for life!
But I wanted to focus on practical application.
How were doctors of all stripes actually practicing medicine at the turn of the
last century? How successful were they? What was actually known back then
about nutrition and the human body in health and disease? What were people
around the globe really eating, and what were the common diseases of that
time? What did people believe about healing? What do we now understand
about the links between what and how they were eating, what they believed,
and their health? What do we know now about the links between what people
today believe, what they practice, and their health?
I dove anew into a study that quickly began to fill up my life.
Discovering people in perfect health
While searching through many sources to answer my questions, I remembered
a reference to the work of Dr. Weston Price. In the 1930s this dedicated dentist
and his wife traveled all around the world to isolated communities untouched,
or barely touched, by “modern” ways of life.
As a dentist, his objective was to learn the cause of tooth decay.
What he discovered were people in absolutely perfect health.
His careful and detailed research, included in his 1939 book, Nutrition and
Physical Degeneration, provides invaluable information about the diet and way
of life of these people and the impact of dietary change.
Everything changed
I read The Science of Being Well many more times. It’s a powerful book, and
studying it has changed my life profoundly. My health, the way I live, my
understanding of healing and the practice of medicine have all been trans-
formed. (You can read more about that last part in the “Afterword.”)
After ALL my research, thought, meditation, and practice, I decided that the
best approach would be to offer you the book in close to its original form. I’ve
rewritten only one chapter, “What to Eat,” and added “Editor’s Notes” at the
ends of the chapters on when, what and how to eat, and on breathing to bring
them up to date with current medical knowledge and to explain changes I made.

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I’ve left most of the archaic language, changing only the word “man” to “a
human being” or “a person” or “humanity” so that women readers don’t have
to translate so many words to include our gender. (Although Mr. Wattles clearly
intended the book for both women and men, at present we still have to trans-
late “he,” “him” and “his” to “she,” “her” and hers.”)
Otherwise, I’ve left Mr. Wattles’ original arguments, examples, and histori-
cal references, even though I’m bursting to talk with you about them!
As a start, I’ve added a section, “Historical Notes on When, What, and How
to Eat,” to begin to give you the historical context and evidence supporting Mr.
Wattles’ radical ideas about eating. It’s juicy! I’ve also added a short glossary
to help you with a few of the terms.
Read The Science of Being Well! Read it again — and again. Put it into practice
— try it for yourself! Write to me about your experiences. Join me and all the
others who are amazed at what is unfolding for them as they tap into the power
of this book.
Mr. Wattles claimed a 100% success rate with the hundreds of people who
tried it alongside him.
How will your success unfold?
Just One Caution:
The only caution I must add to your implementing Mr. Wattles’ recom-
mended eating plan is this:
If you are emaciated, have a serious condition associated with malnourishment or
nutrient deficiency, or have a condition which affects your hunger, or your ability to
detect hunger, I advise you to work under the guidance of a doctor familiar with (and
enthusiastic about) this book, Mr. Fletcher’s and Dr. Dewey’s work, and experienced
in guiding people like you.
Don’t Worry: Perfection Is Not Required!
There’s another important bit of guidance I’d like to offer as you dive into The
Science of Being Well.
Start where you are, with what you have, and do what you can to the best
of your ability. This is not an all-or-nothing program that only works if you do
it “perfectly.” What Mr. Wattles suggests may be a huge change for you. If it
sounds overwhelming or impossible, start with small changes — one choice at
a time.
My experience is that the key ingredient to success is willingness. Willing-
ness to become aware of what choices you're making. Willingness to make a
small change and celebrate it. Willingness to be patient with yourself and the
process. Willingness to start over, to try again. Willingness to have faith.
If you can’t do it all, what part can you do? Focus on and do what you can do,
and it will make a difference.
In all of living an abundant, healthy life, the most important thing to know is

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that there is good everywhere, in every situation, in everything, and in every
person, including you. If you seek always to find and focus on that good, to
build on that good, and to increase your conscious experience of goodness,
you will have a good and healthy life.
May you find The Science of Being Well as intriguing and helpful as I have in
your own quest for the fullest, most abundant life possible.

Blessings for a healthy and abundant life! And of course ...

Be Well!

Dr. Alexandra Gayek

Seattle, Washington, USA
April 2004

P.S. When you downloaded this book, you signed up for the accompanying
ezine, Be Well!™ In each edition, you’ll find more on the burning questions
and issues raised in this book. You’ll find links to other tools and resources
that will make it easier for you to understand and successfully practice the
Science of Being Well.
You’ll also find success stories and testimonials of the experiences of people
who have begun to live The Science of Being Well.
Will their successes be yours too?

www.scienceofbeingwell.net The Science of Being Well 8

Preface

Author’s Preface
his volume is the second of a series, the first of which is

.T
... The Science of Getting Rich. As that book is intended solely
for those who want money, so this is for those who want
health, and who want a practical guide and handbook, not a
philosophical treatise.
It is an instructor in the use of the universal Principle of Life,
and my effort has been to explain the way in so plain and simple
Author Wallace
a fashion that the reader, though he may have given no previ-
ous study to New Thought or metaphysics, may readily follow Delois Wattles
it to perfect health. While retaining all essentials, I have carefully eliminated all
non-essentials. I have used no technical, abstruse, or difficult language, and
have kept the one point in view at all times.
As its title asserts, the book deals with science, not speculation. The monistic
theory of the universe — the theory that matter, mind, consciousness, and life
are all manifestations of One Substance — is now accepted by most thinkers,
and if you accept this theory, you cannot deny the logical conclusions you will
find here.
Best of all, the methods of thought and action prescribed have been tested by
the author in his own case and in the case of hundreds of others during twelve
years of practice, with continuous and unfailing success.
I can say of the Science of Being Well that it works, and that wherever its
laws are complied with, it can no more fail to work than the science of geom-
etry can fail to work. If the tissues of your body have not been so destroyed that
continued life is impossible, you can get well, and if you will think and act in a
Certain Way, you will get well.
Those who wish more detailed information as to the performance of the vol-
untary function of eating, I would recommend the writings of Horace Fletcher
and of Edward Hooker Dewey. Read these, if you like, as a sort of buttress to
your faith, but let me warn you against making the mistake of studying many
conflicting theories, and practicing, at the same time, parts of several different
“systems.” For if you get well, it must be by giving your WHOLE MIND to the
right way of thinking and living.
Remember that the Science of Being Well claims to be a complete and suffi-
cient guide in every particular. Concentrate upon the way of thinking and act-

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ing it prescribes, and follow it in every detail, and you will get well, or if you
are already well, you will remain so.
Trusting that you will go on until the priceless blessing of perfect health is
yours, I remain,

Wallace D. Wattles

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Chapter 1

The Principle of Health

n the personal application of the Science of Being Well, as in that of the
I.. Science of Getting Rich, certain fundamental truths must be known in the be-
ginning, and accepted without question. Some of these truths we state here:
The perfectly natural performance of function constitutes health, and the
perfectly natural performance of function results from the natural action of the
Principle of Life.
There is a Principle of Life in the universe, and it is the One Living Substance
from which all things are made. This Living Substance permeates, penetrates,
and fills the interspaces of the universe. It is in and through all things, like a
very refined and diffusible ether. All life comes from it — its life is all the life
there is.
A human being is a form of this Living Substance, and has within him a
Principle of Health. (The word Principle is used as meaning source.) The Prin-
ciple of Health in a person, when in full constructive activity, causes all the
voluntary functions of his life to be perfectly performed. It is the Principle of
Health in a person which really works all healing, no matter what “system” or
“remedy” is employed, and this Principle of Health is brought into Construc-
tive Activity by thinking in a Certain Way.
I proceed now to prove this last statement. We all know that cures are wrought
by all the different, and often opposite, methods employed in the various
branches of the healing art. The allopath, who gives a strong dose of a counter-
poison, cures his patient. And the homeopath, who gives a diminutive dose of
the poison most similar to that of the disease, also cures it. If allopathy ever
cured any given disease, it is certain that homeopathy never cured that dis-
ease. And if homeopathy ever cured an ailment, allopathy could not possibly
cure that ailment.*
The two systems are radically opposite in theory and practice, and yet both
“cure” most diseases. And even the remedies used by physicians in any one
school are not the same.
Go with a case of indigestion to half a dozen doctors, and compare their
prescriptions. It is more than likely that none of the ingredients of any one of
them will also be in the others. Must we not conclude that their patients are

*Because these two systems are opposite, they cannot be used effectively at the same time in a
sick person.

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healed by a Principle of Health within themselves, and not by something in the
varying “remedies”?
Not only this, but we find the same ailments cured by the osteopath with
manipulations of the spine, by the faith healer with prayer, by the food scien-
tist with bills of fare, by the Christian Scientist with a formulated creed state-
ment, by the mental scientist with affirmation, and by the hygienists with dif-
fering plans of living.
What conclusion can we come to in the face of all these facts but that there is
a Principle of Health which is the same in all people, and which really accom-
plishes all the cures; and that there is something in all the “systems” which,
under favorable conditions, arouses the Principle of Health to action? That is,
medicines, manipulations, prayers, bills of fare, affirmations, and hygienic prac-
tices cure whenever they cause the Principle of Health to become active, and
fail whenever they do not cause it to become active.
Does not all this indicate that the results depend upon the way the patient
thinks about the remedy, rather than upon the ingredients in the prescription?
There is an old story which furnishes so good an illustration on this point
that I will give it here. It is said that in the middle ages, the bones of a saint,
kept in one of the monasteries, were working miracles of healing. On certain
days a great crowd of the afflicted gathered to touch the relics, and all who did
so were healed.
On the eve of one of these occasions, some sacrilegious rascal gained access
to the case in which the wonder-working relics were kept and stole the bones,
and in the morning, with the usual crowd of sufferers waiting at the gates, the
fathers found themselves shorn of the source of the miracle-working power.
They resolved to keep the matter quiet, hoping that by doing so they might
find the thief and recover their treasures, and hastening to the cellar of the con-
vent they dug up the bones of a murderer, who had been buried there many
years before. These they placed in the case, intending to make some plausible
excuse for the failure of the saint to perform his usual miracles on that day; and
then they let in the waiting assemblage of the sick and infirm.
To the intense astonishment of those in on the secret, the bones of the male-
factor proved as effective as those of the saint, and the healing went on as
before. One of the fathers is said to have left a history of the occurrence, in
which he confessed that, in his judgment, the healing power had been in the
people themselves all the time, and never in the bones at all.
Whether the story is true or not, the conclusion applies to all the cures wrought
by all the systems. The Power that Heals is in the patient himself, and whether
it shall become active or not does not depend upon the physical or mental
means used, but upon the way the patient thinks about these means. There is a
Universal Principle of Life, as Jesus taught — a great spiritual Healing Power
— and there is a Principle of Health in every human being which is related to

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this Healing Power. This is dormant or active, according to the way a person
thinks. He can always quicken it into activity by thinking in a Certain Way.
Your getting well does not depend upon the adoption of some system, or the
finding of some remedy; people with your identical ailments have been healed
by all systems and all remedies. It does not depend upon climate; some people
are well and others are sick in all climates. It does not depend upon avocation,
unless in case of those who work under poisonous conditions; people are well
in all trades and professions.
Your getting well depends upon your beginning to think — and act — in a
Certain Way.
The way a person thinks about things is determined by what he believes
about them. His thoughts are determined by his faith, and the results depend
upon his making a personal application of his faith.
If a person has faith in the efficacy of a medicine, and is able to apply that
faith to himself, that medicine will certainly cause him to be cured. But though
his faith be great, he will not be cured unless he applies it to himself. Many sick
people have faith for others but none for themselves. So, if he has faith in a
system of diet, and can personally apply that faith, it will cure him. And if he
has faith in prayers and affirmations and personally applies his faith, prayers
and affirmations will cure him.
Faith, personally applied, cures. And no matter how great the faith or how
persistent the thought, it will not cure without personal application. The Sci-
ence of Being Well, then, includes the two fields of thought and action.
To be well it is not enough that a person should merely think in a Certain
Way. He must apply his thought to himself, and he must express and external-
ize it in his outward life by acting in the same way that he thinks.

www.scienceofgettingrich.net The Science of Being Well 13

Chapter 2

The Foundations of Faith

efore a person can think in the Certain Way which will cause his diseases
B
.... to be healed, he must believe in certain truths which are here stated:
All things are made from one Living Substance, which, in its original
state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. While all
visible things are made from It, yet this Substance — in its first formless condi-
tion — is in and through all the visible forms that It has made. Its life is in All,
and its intelligence is in All.
This Substance creates by thought, and its method is by taking the form of
that which it thinks about. The thought of a form held by this substance causes
it to assume that form; the thought of a motion causes it to institute that mo-
tion. Forms are created by this substance in moving itself into certain orienta-
tions or positions.
When original Substance wishes to create a given form, it thinks of the mo-
tions which will produce that form. When it wishes to create a world, it thinks
of the motions, perhaps extending through ages, which will result in its com-
ing into the attitude and form of the world — and these motions are made.
When it wishes to create an oak tree, it thinks of the sequences of movement,
perhaps extending through ages, which will result in the form of an oak tree —
and these motions are made. The particular sequences of motion by which dif-
fering forms should be produced were established in the beginning; they are
changeless. Certain motions instituted in the Formless Substance will forever
produce certain forms.
The human body is formed from the Original Substance, and is the result of
certain motions, which first existed as thoughts of Original Substance. The mo-
tions which produce, renew, and repair the body are called functions, and these
functions are of two classes: voluntary and involuntary.
The involuntary functions are under the control of the Principle of Health in
a person, and are performed in a perfectly healthy manner so long as a person
thinks in a certain way. The voluntary functions of life are eating, drinking,
breathing, and sleeping. These, entirely or in part, are under the direction of a
person’s conscious mind, and he can perform them in a perfectly healthy way
if he will. If he does not perform them in a healthy way, he cannot long be well.
So we see that if a person thinks in a certain way, and eats, drinks, breathes,
and sleeps in a corresponding way, he will be well.

www.scienceofbeingwell.net The Science of Being Well 14

 The involuntary functions of a person’s life are under the direct control of
the Principle of Health, and so long as a person thinks in a perfectly healthy
way, these functions are perfectly performed, for the action of the Principle of
Health is largely directed by a person’s conscious thought, affecting his sub-
conscious mind.
A person is a thinking center, capable of originating thought, and as he does
not know everything, he makes mistakes and thinks error. Not knowing every-
thing, he believes things to be true which are not true. A person holds in his
thought the idea of diseased and abnormal functioning and conditions, and so
perverts the action of the Principle of Health, causing diseased and abnormal
functioning and conditions within his own body.
In the Original Substance there are held only the thoughts of perfect motion,
perfect and healthy function, complete life. God never thinks disease or imper-
fection. But for countless ages people have held thoughts of disease, abnormal-
ity, old age, and death. And the perverted functioning resulting from these
thoughts has become a part of the inheritance of the human race. Our ancestors
have, for many generations, held imperfect ideas concerning human form and
functioning, and we begin life with racial* sub-conscious impressions of im-
perfection and disease.
This is not natural, not a part of the plan of nature.
The purpose of nature can be nothing else than the perfection of life. This we
see from the very nature of life itself. It is the nature of life to continually ad-
vance toward more perfect living; advancement is the inevitable result of the
very act of living. Increase is always the result of active living; whatever lives
must live more and more.
The seed, lying in the granary, has life, but it is not living. Put it into the soil
and it becomes active, and at once begins to gather to itself from the surround-
ing substance, and to build a plant form. It will so cause increase that a seed
head will be produced containing 30, 60, or a hundred seeds, each having as
much life as the first.
Life, by living, increases.
Life cannot live without increasing, and the fundamental impulse of life is to
live. It is in response to this fundamental impulse that Original Substance works,
and creates. God must live, and God cannot live except as God creates and
increases. In multiplying forms, God is moving on to live more.
The universe is a Great Advancing Life, and the purpose of nature is the
advancement of life toward perfection, toward perfect functioning. The pur-
pose of nature is perfect health.
The purpose of Nature, so far as a human being is concerned, is that he should
be continuously advancing into more life, and progressing toward perfect life;

*He is referring to “the human race” and to our collective consciousness, sometimes called “race
thought.”

www.scienceofbeingwell.net The Science of Being Well 15

and that he should live the most complete life possible in his present sphere of
action.
This must be so, because That which lives in a person is seeking more life.
Give a little child a pencil and paper, and he begins to draw crude figures.
That which lives in him is trying to express Itself in art. Give him a set of blocks,
and he will try to build something. That which lives in him is seeking expres-
sion in architecture. Seat him at a piano, and he will try to draw harmony from
the keys. That which lives in him is trying to express Itself in music.
That which lives in a person is always seeking to live more, and since a per-
son lives most when he is well, the Principle of Nature in him can seek only
health. The natural state of a human being is a state of perfect health, and ev-
erything in him and in nature tends toward health.
Sickness can have no place in the thought of Original Substance, for it is by
its own nature continually impelled toward the fullest and most perfect life —
therefore, toward health. A human being, as he exists in the thought of the
Formless Substance, has perfect health. Disease, which is abnormal or perverted
function — motion imperfectly made, or made in the direction of imperfect life
— has no place in the thought of the Thinking Stuff.
The Supreme Mind never thinks of disease. Disease was not created or or-
dained by God, or sent forth from God. It is wholly a product of separate con-
sciousness, of the individual thought of a person. God, the Formless Substance,
does not see disease, think disease, know disease, or recognize disease. Disease
is recognized only by the thought of humanity; God thinks nothing but health.
From all the foregoing, we see that health is a fact or TRUTH in the Original
Substance from which we are all formed, and that disease is imperfect func-
tioning, resulting from the imperfect thoughts of people, past and present. If a
person’s thoughts of himself had always been those of perfect health, a person
could not possibly now be otherwise than perfectly healthy.
A human being in perfect health is the thought of Original Substance, and a
human being in imperfect health is the result of his own failure to think perfect
health, and to perform the voluntary functions of life in a healthy way. We will
here arrange in a syllabus the basic truths of the Science of Being Well:
There is a Thinking Substance from which all things are made, and which, in its
original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. It is the
life of All.
The thought of a form in this Substance causes the form; the thought of a motion
produces the motion. In relation to humanity, the thoughts of this Substance are al-
ways of perfect functioning and perfect health.
A person is a thinking center, capable of original thought; and his thought has
power over his own functioning. By thinking imperfect thoughts he has caused imper-
fect and perverted functioning; and by performing the voluntary functions of life in a
perverted manner, he has assisted in causing disease.

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 If a person will think only thoughts of perfect health, he can cause within himself the
functioning of perfect health; all the Power of Life will be exerted to assist him. But this
healthy functioning will not continue unless a person performs the external, or volun-
tary, functions of living in a healthy manner.
A person’s first step must be to learn how to think perfect health; and his second step
to learn how to eat, drink, breathe, and sleep in a perfectly healthy way. If a person
takes these two steps, he will certainly become well, and remain so.

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Chapter 3

Life and Its Organisms

he human body is the abiding place of an energy which renews it when

.T
... worn, which eliminates waste or poisonous matter, and which repairs
the body when broken or injured. This energy we call life. Life is not
generated or produced within the body; it produces the body.
The seed which has been kept in the storehouse for years will grow when
planted in the soil; it will produce a plant. But the life in the plant is not gener-
ated by its growing; it is the life which makes the plant grow.
The performance of function does not cause life; it is life which causes func-
tion to be performed. Life is first; function afterward.
It is life which distinguishes organic from inorganic matter, but it is not pro-
duced after the organization of matter.
Life is the principle or force which causes organization; it builds organisms.
It is a principle or force inherent in Original Substance; all life is One.
This Life Principle of the All is the Principle of Health in a person, and be-
comes constructively active whenever a person thinks in a Certain Way. Who-
ever, therefore, thinks in this Certain Way will surely have perfect health if his
external functioning is in conformity with his thought. But the external func-
tioning must conform to the thought; a person cannot hope to be well by think-
ing health, if he eats, drinks, breathes, and sleeps like a sick person.
The universal Life Principle, then, is the Principle of Health in a human be-
ing. It is one with original substance. There is one Original Substance from
which all things are made; this substance is alive, and its life is the Principle of
Life of the universe. This Substance has created from itself all the forms of or-
ganic life by thinking them, or by thinking the motions and functions which
produce them.
Original Substance thinks only health, because It knows all truth. There is no
truth which is not known in the Formless, which is All, and in all. It not only
knows all truth, but it has all power. Its vital power is the source of all the
energy there is. A conscious life which knows all truth and which has all power
cannot go wrong or perform function imperfectly. Knowing all, it knows too
much to go wrong, and so the Formless cannot be diseased or think disease.
A human being is a form of this Original Substance, and has a separate
consciousness of his own, but his consciousness is limited, and therefore im-
perfect. By reason of his limited knowledge a person can and does think wrong-

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ly, and so he causes perverted and imperfect functioning in his own body. A
human being has not yet known enough not to go wrong. The diseased or im-
perfect functioning may not instantly result from an imperfect thought, but it
is bound to come if the thought becomes habitual.
Any thought continuously held by a person tends to the establishment of the
corresponding condition in his body.
Also, the human being has failed to learn how to perform the voluntary func-
tions of his life in a healthy way. He does not know when, what, and how to
eat. He knows little about breathing and less about sleep. He does all these
things in a wrong way, and under wrong conditions, and this because he has
neglected to follow the only sure guide to the knowledge of life. He has tried to
live by logic rather than by instinct. He has made living a matter of art, and not
of nature. And he has gone wrong.
His only remedy is to begin to go right, and this he can surely do. It is the
work of this book to teach the whole truth, so that the person who reads it shall
know too much to go wrong.
The thoughts of disease produce the forms of disease. A person must learn
to think health; and being Original Substance which takes the form of its
thoughts, he will become the form of health and manifest perfect health in all
his functioning. The people who were healed by touching the bones of the saint
were really healed by thinking in a Certain Way, and not by any power ema-
nating from the relics. There is no healing power in the bones of dead men,
whether they be those of saint or sinner.
The people who were healed by the doses of either the allopath or the ho-
meopath were also really healed by thinking in a Certain Way; there is no drug
which has within itself the power to heal disease.
The people who have been healed by prayers and affirmations were also
healed by thinking in a certain way; there is no curative power in strings of
words.
All the sick who have been healed, by whatsoever “system,” have thought in
a Certain Way; and a little examination will show us what this way is.
The two essentials of the Way are Faith and a Personal Application of the Faith.
The people who touched the saint’s bones had faith, and so great was their
faith that in the instant they touched the relics they SEVERED ALL MENTAL
RELATIONS WITH DISEASE, AND MENTALLY UNIFIED THEMSELVES
WITH HEALTH.
This change of mind was accompanied by an intense devotional FEELING
which penetrated to the deepest recesses of their souls, and so aroused the
Principle of Health to powerful action. By faith they claimed that they were
healed, or appropriated health to themselves, and in full faith they ceased to
think of themselves in connection with disease and thought of themselves only
in connection with health.

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 These are the two essentials to thinking in the Certain Way which will make
you well: first, claim or appropriate health by faith, and, second, sever all men-
tal relations with disease and enter into mental relations with health.
That which we make ourselves, mentally, we become physically, and that
with which we unite ourselves mentally we become unified with physically.
If your thought always relates you to disease, then your thought becomes a
fixed power to cause disease within you. And if your thought always relates
you to health, then your thought becomes a fixed power exerted to keep you
well.
In the case of the people who are healed by medicines, the result is obtained
in the same way. They have, consciously or unconsciously, sufficient faith in
the means used that they sever mental relations with disease and enter into
mental relations with health.
Faith may be unconscious. It is possible for us to have a sub-conscious or
inbred faith in things like medicine, in which we do not believe to any extent
objectively, and this sub-conscious faith may be quite sufficient to quicken the
Principle of Health into constructive activity. Many who have little conscious
faith are healed in this way, while many others who have great faith in the
means are not healed because they do not make the personal application to
themselves. Their faith is general, but not specific for their own cases.
In the Science of Being Well we have two main points to consider: first, how
to think with faith, and, second, how to so apply the thought to ourselves as to
quicken the Principle of Health into constructive activity.
We begin by learning What to Think.

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Chapter 4

What To Think
n order to sever all mental relations with disease, you must enter into men-
I.. tal relations with health, making the process positive, not negative — one
of assumption, not of rejection. You are to receive or appropriate health
rather than to reject and deny disease. Denying disease accomplishes next to
nothing; it does little good to cast out the devil and leave the house vacant, for
he will presently return with others worse than himself. When you enter into
full and constant mental relations with health, you must of necessity cease all
relationship with disease.
The first step in the Science of Being Well, then, is to enter into complete
thought connection with health.
The best way to do this is to form a mental image or picture of yourself as
being well, imagining a perfectly strong and healthy body, and to spend suffi-
cient time in contemplating this image to make it your habitual thought of
yourself.
This is not so easy as it sounds. It necessitates the taking of considerable time
for meditation, and not all persons have the imaging faculty well enough de-
veloped to form a distinct mental picture of themselves in a perfect or ideal-
ized body. It is much easier, as in The Science of Getting Rich, to form a mental
image of the things one wants to have, for we have seen these things or their
counterparts and know how they look. We can picture them very easily from
memory. But if we have never seen ourselves in a perfect body, a clear mental
image is hard to form.
It is not necessary or essential, however, to have a clear mental image of
yourself as you wish to be; it is only essential to form a CONCEPTION of per-
fect health, and to relate yourself to it. This Conception of Health is not a men-
tal picture of a particular thing. It is an understanding of health, and carries
with it the idea of perfect functioning in every part and organ.
You may TRY to picture yourself as perfect in physique — that helps — and
you MUST think of yourself as doing everything in the manner of a perfectly strong
and healthy person.
You can picture yourself as walking down the street with an erect body and
a vigorous stride. You can picture yourself as doing your day’s work easily
and with surplus vigor, never tired or weak. You can picture in your mind
how all things would be done by a person full of health and power, and you

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can make yourself the central figure in the picture, doing things in just that
way.
Never think of the ways in which weak or sickly people do things; always
think of the way strong people do things. Spend your leisure time in thinking
about the Strong Way, until you have a good conception of it, and always think
of yourself in connection with the Strong Way of Doing Things. That is what I
mean by having a Conception of Health.
In order to establish perfect functioning in every part, a person does not
have to study anatomy or physiology so that he can form a mental image of
each separate organ and address himself to it. He does not have to “treat” his
liver, his kidneys, his stomach, or his heart. There is one Principle of Health in
a human being, which has control over all the involuntary functions of his life,
and the thought of perfect health, impressed upon this Principle, will reach
each part and organ. A person’s liver is not controlled by a liver-principle, his
stomach by a digestive principle, and so on. The Principle of Health is One.
The less you go into the detailed study of physiology, the better for you. Our
knowledge of this science is very imperfect, and leads to imperfect thought.
Imperfect thought causes imperfect functioning, which is disease.
Let me illustrate: Until quite recently, physiology fixed ten days as the ex-
treme limit of a human being’s endurance without food. It was considered that
only in exceptional cases could a person survive a longer fast. So the impres-
sion became universally disseminated that one who was deprived of food must
die in from five to ten days. And numbers of people, when cut off from food by
shipwreck, accident, or famine, did die within this period.
But the performances of Dr. Tanner, the 40-day faster, and the writings of
Dr. Dewey and others on the fasting cure, together with the experiments of
numberless people who have fasted from 40 to 60 days, have shown that a
human’s ability to live without food is vastly greater than had been supposed.
Any person, properly educated, can fast from 20 to 40 days with little loss in
weight, and often with no apparent loss of strength at all.
The people who starved to death in ten days or less did so because they
believed that death was inevitable. An erroneous physiology had given them a
wrong thought about themselves. When a person is deprived of food he will
die in from 10 to 50 days, according to the way he has been taught, or, in other
words, according to the way he thinks about it. So you see that an erroneous
physiology can work very mischievous results.
No Science of Being Well can be founded on current physiology; it is not
sufficiently exact in its knowledge. With all its pretensions, comparatively little
is really known as to the interior workings and processes of the body. It is not
known just how food is digested. It is not known just what part food plays, if
any, in the generation of force. It is not known exactly what the liver, spleen,
and pancreas are for, or what part their secretions play in the chemistry of

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assimilation. On all these and most other points we theorize, but we do not
really know.
When a person begins to study physiology, he enters the domain of theory
and disputation. He comes among conflicting opinions, and he is bound to
form mistaken ideas concerning himself. These mistaken ideas lead to the think-
ing of wrong thoughts, and this leads to perverted functioning and disease.
All that the most perfect knowledge of physiology could do for a person
would be to enable him to think only thoughts of perfect health, and to eat,
drink, breathe, and sleep in a perfectly healthy way. And this, as we shall show,
he can do without studying physiology at all.
This, for the most part, is true of all hygiene. There are certain fundamental
propositions which we should know, and these will be explained in later chap-
ters, but aside from these propositions, ignore physiology and hygiene. They
tend to fill your mind with thoughts of imperfect conditions, and these thoughts
will produce the imperfect conditions in your own body. You cannot study
any “science” which recognizes disease, if you are to think nothing but health.
Drop all investigation as to your present condition, its causes, or possible results,
and set yourself to the work of forming a conception of health.
Think about health and the possibilities of health, of the work that may be
done and the pleasures that may be enjoyed in a condition of perfect health.
Then make this conception your guide in thinking of yourself. Refuse to enter-
tain for an instant any thought of yourself which is not in harmony with it.
When any idea of disease or imperfect functioning enters your mind, cast it out
instantly by calling up a thought which is in harmony with the Conception of
Health.
Think of yourself at all times as realizing this conception, as being a strong
and perfectly healthy personage, and do not harbor a contrary thought.
KNOW that as you think of yourself in unity with this conception, the Origi-
nal Substance which permeates and fills the tissues of your body is taking form
according to the thought, and know that this Intelligent Substance or mind
stuff will cause function to be performed in such a way that your body will be
rebuilt with perfectly healthy cells.
The Intelligent Substance, from which all things are made, permeates and
penetrates all things; and so it is in and through your body. It moves according
to its thoughts, and so if you hold only the thoughts of perfectly healthy func-
tion, it will cause the movements of perfectly healthy function within you.
Hold with persistence to the thought of perfect health in relation to yourself.
Do not permit yourself to think in any other way. Hold this thought with per-
fect faith that it is the fact, the truth. It is the truth so far as your mental body is
concerned.
You have a mind-body and a physical body. The mind-body takes form just
as you think of yourself, and any thought which you hold continuously is made

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visible by the transformation of the physical body into its image. Implanting
the thought of perfect functioning in the mind-body will, in due time, cause
perfect functioning in the physical body.
The transformation of the physical body into the image of the ideal held by the
mind-body is not accomplished instantaneously — we cannot transfigure our
physical bodies at will as Jesus did. In the creation and recreation of forms, Sub-
stance moves along the fixed lines of growth it has established, and the impres-
sion upon it of the health thought causes the healthy body to be built cell by cell.
Holding only thoughts of perfect health will ultimately cause perfect function-
ing, and perfect functioning will in due time produce a perfectly healthy body.
It may be as well to condense this chapter into a syllabus:
Your physical body is permeated and filled with an Intelligent Substance, which
forms a body of mind-stuff. This mind-stuff controls the functioning of your physical
body. A thought of disease or of imperfect function, impressed upon the mind-stuff,
causes disease or imperfect functioning in the physical body.
If you are diseased, it is because wrong thoughts have made impressions on this
mind-stuff. These may have been either your own thoughts or those of your parents —
we begin life with many sub-conscious impressions, both right and wrong. But the
natural tendency of all mind is toward health, and if no thoughts are held in the con-
scious mind save those of health, all internal functioning will come to be performed in
a perfectly healthy manner.
The Power of Nature within you is sufficient to overcome all hereditary impres-
sions, and if you will learn to control your thoughts, so that you shall think only those
of health, and if you will perform the voluntary functions of life in a perfectly healthy
way, you can certainly be well.

Editor’s Note
In 1910, very little was known about physiology and pathology — the inner
workings of the body in health and disease. Today, almost a century later, de-
spite huge advances in medical science, the human body is still largely a mys-
tery. The process of mapping the intricate genetic code that makes us human
(the “Human Genome Project”) has called into question what every present-
day doctor was taught in school about the most basic function in our cells —
the role of DNA.
The implications of this are at least as dramatic as the discovery that the
earth is not flat!
Amazingly enough, cutting-edge science supports exactly what Mr. Wattles
wrote in this last paragraph, which bears repeating: e Power of Nature within
you is sufficient to overcome all hereditary impressions, and if you will learn
to control your thoughts, so that you shall think only those of health, and if you
will perform the voluntary functions of life in a perfectly healthy way, you can
certainly be well.

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Chapter 5

Faith
he Principle of Health is moved by Faith. Nothing else can call it into ac-

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... tion, and only faith can enable you to relate yourself to health, and sever
your relation with disease, in your thoughts.
You will continue to think of disease unless you have faith in health. If you
do not have faith, you will doubt. If you doubt, you will fear. And if you fear,
you will relate yourself in mind to that which you fear.
If you fear disease, you will think of yourself in connection with disease, and
that will produce within yourself the form and motions of disease. Just as Origi-
nal Substance creates from itself the forms of its thoughts, so your mind-body,
which is original substance, takes the form and motion of whatever you think
about. If you fear disease, dread disease, have doubts about your safety from
disease, or if you even contemplate disease, you will connect yourself with it
and create its forms and motions within you.
Let me enlarge somewhat upon this point. The potency, or creative power,
of a thought is given to it by the faith that is in it.
Thoughts which contain no faith create no forms.
The Formless Substance, which knows all truth and therefore thinks only
truth, has perfect faith in every thought, because it thinks only truth, and so all
its thoughts create.
But if you will imagine a thought in Formless Substance in which there was
no faith, you will see that such a thought could not cause the Substance to
move or take form.
Keep in mind the fact that only those thoughts which are conceived in faith
have creative energy. Only those thoughts which have faith with them are able
to change function, or to quicken the Principle of Health into activity.
If you do not have faith in health, you will certainly have faith in disease. If
you do not have faith in health, it will do you no good to think about health, for
your thoughts will have no potency, and will cause no change for the better in
your conditions.
If you do not have faith in health, I repeat, you will have faith in disease.
And if, under such conditions, you think about health for ten hours a day and
think about disease for only a few minutes, the disease thought will control
your condition because it will have the potency of faith, while the health thought
will not. Your mind-body will take on the form and motions of disease and

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retain them, because your health thought will not have sufficient dynamic force
to change form or motion.
In order to practice the Science of Being Well, you must have complete faith
in health.
Faith begins in belief; and we now come to the question: What must you be-
lieve in order to have faith in health?
You must believe that there is more health-power than disease-power in both
yourself and your environment; and you cannot help believing this if you con-
sider the facts. These are the facts:
There is a Thinking Substance from which all things are made, and which, in
its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe.
The thought of a form, in this Substance, produces the form; the thought of a
motion institutes the motion. In relation to the human being, the thoughts of
Original Substance are always of perfect health and perfect functioning. This
Substance, within and without a human being, always exerts its power toward
health.
A person is a thinking center, capable of original thought. He has a mind-
body of Original Substance permeating a physical body, and the functioning of
his physical body is determined by the FAITH of his mind-body. If a person
thinks with faith of the functioning of health, he will cause his internal func-
tions to be performed in a healthy manner, provided that he performs the ex-
ternal functions in a corresponding manner. But if a person thinks, with faith,
of disease, or of the power of disease, he will cause his internal functioning to
be the functioning of disease.
The Original Intelligent Substance is in a human being, moving toward health —
and it is pressing upon him from every side. The human being lives, moves, and has his
being in a limitless ocean of health-power, and he uses this power according to his
faith. If he appropriates it and applies it to himself it is all his, and if he unifies himself
with it by unquestioning faith, he cannot fail to attain health, for the power of this
Substance is all the power there is.
A belief in the above statements is a foundation for faith in health. If you
believe them, you believe that health is the natural state of humanity, and that
a human being lives in the midst of Universal Health — that all the power of
nature makes for health, and that health is possible to all, and can surely be
attained by all.
You will believe that the power of health in the universe is 10,000 times greater
than that of disease — in fact, that disease has no power whatever, being only
the result of perverted thought and faith. And if you believe that health is pos-
sible to you, and that it may surely be attained by you, and that you know
exactly what to do in order to attain it, you will have faith in health. You will
have this faith and knowledge if you read this book through with care and
determine to believe in and practice its teachings.

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 It is not merely the possession of faith, but the personal application of faith
which works healing. You must claim health in the beginning, and form a con-
ception of health, and, as far as may be, of yourself as a perfectly healthy per-
son. And then, by faith, you must claim that you ARE REALIZING this con-
ception.
Do not assert with faith that you are going to get well; assert with faith that
you ARE well. Having faith in health, and applying it to yourself, means hav-
ing faith that you are healthy. And the first step in this is to claim that it is the truth.
Mentally take the attitude of being well, and do not say anything or do any-
thing which contradicts this attitude. Never speak a word or assume a physical
attitude which does not harmonize with the claim: “I am perfectly well.”
When you walk, go with a brisk step, and with your chest thrown out and
your head held up. Watch that at all times your physical actions and attitudes
are those of a healthy person.
When you find that you have relapsed into the attitude of weakness or dis-
ease, change instantly: straighten up, and think of health and power. Refuse to
consider yourself as other than a perfectly healthy person.
One great aid — perhaps the greatest aid — in applying your faith you will
find in the exercise of gratitude.
Whenever you think of yourself, or of your advancing condition, give thanks
to the Great Intelligent Substance for the perfect health you are enjoying.
Remember that there is a continual inflow of life from the Supreme, which is
received by all created things according to their forms, and by every person
according to his faith. Health from God is continually being urged upon you,
and when you think of this, lift up your mind reverently, and give thanks that
you have been led to the Truth and into perfect health of mind and body. Be, all
the time, in a grateful frame of mind, and let gratitude be evident in your speech.
Gratitude will help you to own and control your own field of thought.
Whenever the thought of disease is presented to you, instantly claim health,
and thank God for the perfect health you have. Do this so that there shall be no
room in your mind for a thought of ill. Every thought connected in any way
with ill health is unwelcome, and you can close the door of your mind in its
face by asserting that you are well, and by reverently thanking God that it is so.
Soon the old thoughts will return no more.
Gratitude has a twofold effect: it strengthens your own faith, and it brings
you into close and harmonious relations with the Supreme. You believe that
there is one Intelligent Substance from which all life and all power come, you
believe that you receive your own life from this substance, and you relate your-
self closely to It by feeling continuous gratitude.
It is easy to see that the more closely you relate yourself to the Source of Life
the more readily you may receive life from it. And it is easy also to see that
your relation to It is a matter of mental attitude.

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 We cannot come into physical relationship with God, for God is mind-stuff
and we also are mind-stuff. Our relation with God must therefore be a mind
relation. It is plain, then, that the person who feels deep and hearty gratitude
will live in closer touch with God than the person who never looks up to God
in thankfulness.
The ungrateful or unthankful mind really denies that it receives at all, and so
cuts its connection with the Supreme. The grateful mind is always looking to-
ward the Supreme, is always open to receive from it, and it will receive con-
tinually.
The Principle of Health in a human being receives its vital power from the Principle
of Life in the universe, and a person relates himself to the Principle of Life by faith in
health, and by gratitude for the health he receives.
A person may cultivate both faith and gratitude by the proper use of his will.

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Chapter 6

Use of the Will

n the practice of the Science of Being Well, the will is not used to compel
I.. yourself to go when you are not really able to go or to do things when you
are not physically strong enough to do them. You do not direct your will
upon your physical body or try to compel the proper performance of internal
function by will power.
You direct the will upon the mind, and use it in determining what you shall believe,
what you shall think, and to what you shall give your attention.
The will should never be used upon any person or thing external to you, and
it should never be used upon your own body. The sole legitimate use of the
will is in determining to what you shall give your attention and what you shall
think about the things to which your attention is given.
All belief begins in the will to believe.
You cannot always and instantly believe what you will to believe; but you
can always will to believe what you want to believe. You want to believe truth
about health, and you can will to do so. The statements you have been reading
in this book are the truth about health, and you can will to believe them. This
must be your first step toward getting well.
These are the statements you must will to believe:
That there is a Thinking Substance from which all things are made, and that
a human being receives the Principle of Health, which is his life, from this
Substance.
That a human being himself is Thinking Substance — a mind-body permeat-
ing a physical body, and that as a person’s thoughts are, so will the functioning
of his physical body be.
That if a person will think only thoughts of perfect health, he must and will cause the
internal and involuntary functioning of his body to be the functioning of health, pro-
vided that his external and voluntary functioning and attitude are in accordance with
his thoughts.
When you will to believe these statements, you must also begin to act upon
them. You cannot long retain a belief unless you act upon it, you cannot in-
crease a belief until it becomes faith unless you act upon it, and you certainly
cannot expect to reap benefits in any way from a belief so long as you act as if
the opposite were true.

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 You cannot long have faith in health if you continue to act like a sick person.
If you continue to act like a sick person, you cannot help continuing to think of
yourself as a sick person. And if you continue to think of yourself as a sick
person, you will continue to be a sick person.
The first step toward acting externally like a well person is to begin to act in-
ternally like a well person. Form your conception of perfect health, and get into
the way of thinking about perfect health until it begins to have a definite mean-
ing to you. Picture yourself as doing the things a strong and healthy person
would do, and have faith that you can and will do those things in that way.
Continue this until you have a vivid CONCEPTION of health, and what it
means to you.
When I speak in this book of a conception of health, I mean a conception that
carries with it the idea of the way a healthy person looks and does things.
Think of yourself in connection with health until you form a conception of how
you would live, appear, act, and do things as a perfectly healthy person. Think
about yourself in connection with health until you conceive of yourself, in imagi-
nation, as always doing everything in the manner of a well person — until the
thought of health conveys the idea of what health means to you. As I have said
in a former chapter, you may not be able to form a clear mental image of your-
self in perfect health, but you can form a conception of yourself as acting like a
healthy person.
Form this conception, and then think only thoughts of perfect health in rela-
tion to yourself, and, so far as may be possible, in relation to others. When a
thought of sickness or disease is presented to you, reject it. Do not let it get into
your mind. Do not entertain or consider it at all. Meet it by thinking health, by
thinking that you are well, and by being sincerely grateful for the health you
are receiving.
Whenever suggestions of disease are coming thick and fast upon you, and
you are in a “tight place,” fall back upon the exercise of gratitude. Connect your-
self with the Supreme, give thanks to God for the perfect health God gives you,
and you will soon find yourself able to control your thoughts, and to think what
you want to think. In times of doubt, trial, and temptation, the exercise of grati-
tude is always a sheet anchor which will prevent you from being swept away.
Remember that the great essential thing is to SEVER ALL MENTAL RELA-
TIONS WITH DISEASE, AND TO ENTER INTO FULL MENTAL RELATION-
SHIP WITH HEALTH. This is the KEY to all mental healing; it is the whole thing.
Here we see the secret of the great success of Christian Science. More than
any other formulated system of practice, it insists that its converts shall sever
relations with disease, and relate themselves fully with health. The healing
power of Christian Science is not in its theological formulae nor in its denial of
matter, but in the fact that it induces the sick to ignore disease as an unreal
thing and accept health by faith as a reality. Its failures are made because its

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practitioners, while thinking in the Certain Way, do not eat, drink, breathe,
and sleep in the same way.
While there is no healing power in the repetition of strings of words, yet it is
a very convenient thing to have the central thoughts so formulated that you
can repeat them readily, and so that you can use them as affirmations when-
ever you are surrounded by an environment which gives you adverse sugges-
tions. When those around you begin to talk of sickness and death, close your
ears and mentally assert something like the following:
There is One Substance, and I am that Substance.
That Substance is eternal, and it is Life; I am that Substance, and I am Eternal
Life.
That Substance knows no disease; I am that Substance, and I am Health.
Exercise your will power in choosing only those thoughts which are thoughts
of health, and arrange your environment so that it shall suggest thoughts of
health. Do not have about you books, pictures, or other things which suggest
death, disease, deformity, weakness, or age. Have only those which convey the
ideas of health, power, joy, vitality, and youth. When you are confronted with
a book, or anything else which suggests disease, do not give it your attention.
Think of your conception of health, and your gratitude, and affirm as above.
Use your will power to fix your attention upon thoughts of health. In a future
chapter I shall touch upon this point again. What I wish to make plain here is
that you must think only health, recognize only health, and give your attention
only to health, and that you must control thought, recognition, and attention
by the use of your will.
Do not try to use your will to compel the healthy performance of function
within you. The Principle of Health will attend to that if you give your atten-
tion only to thoughts of health.
Do not try to exert your will upon the Formless to compel It to give you more
vitality or power. It is already placing all the power there is at your service.
You do not have to use your will to conquer adverse conditions, or to sub-
due unfriendly forces. There are no unfriendly forces; there is only One Force,
and that force is friendly to you. It is a force which makes for health.
Everything in the universe wants you to be well. You have absolutely noth-
ing to overcome but your own habit of thinking in a certain way about disease,
and you can do this only by forming a habit of thinking in another Certain Way
about health.
A person can cause all the internal functions of his body to be performed in
a perfectly healthy manner by continuously thinking in a Certain Way and by
performing the external functions in a certain way. He can think in this Certain
Way by controlling his attention, and he can control his attention by the use of
his will.
He can decide what things he will think about.

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Chapter 7

Health from God

will give a chapter here to explain how a human being may receive health
I.. from the Supreme. By the Supreme I mean the Thinking Substance from
which all things are made, and which is in all and through all, seeking
more complete expression and fuller life. This Intelligent Substance, in a per-
fectly fluid state, permeates and penetrates all things, and is in touch with all
minds. It is the source of all energy and power, and constitutes the “inflow” of
life, vitalizing all things. It is working to one definite end and for the fulfill-
ment of one purpose, and that purpose is the advancement of life toward the
complete expression of Mind.
When a person harmonizes himself with this Intelligence, it can and will
give him health and wisdom. When a person holds steadily to the purpose to
live more abundantly, he comes into harmony with this Supreme Intelligence.
The purpose of the Supreme Intelligence is the most Abundant Life for all.
The purpose of this Supreme Intelligence for you is that you should live more
abundantly. If, then, your own purpose is to live more abundantly, you are unified
with the Supreme — you are working with It, and it must work with you.
But as the Supreme Intelligence is in all, if you harmonize with it you must
harmonize with all, and you must desire more abundant life for all as well as for your-
self. Two great benefits come to you from being in harmony with the Supreme
Intelligence.
First, you will receive wisdom.
By wisdom I do not mean knowledge of facts so much as ability to perceive
and understand facts, and to judge soundly and act rightly in all matters relat-
ing to life. Wisdom is the power to perceive truth, and the ability to make the
best use of the knowledge of truth. It is the power to perceive at once the best
end to aim at, and the means best adapted to attain that end.
With wisdom comes poise, and the power to think rightly, to control and
guide your thoughts, and to avoid the difficulties which come from wrong
thinking. With wisdom you will be able to select the right courses for your par-
ticular needs, and to so govern yourself in all ways as to secure the best results.
You will know how to do what you want to do. You can readily see that wis-
dom must be an essential attribute of the Supreme Intelligence, since That which
knows all truth must be wise, and you can also see that just in proportion as you
harmonize and unify your mind with that Intelligence you will have wisdom.

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 But I repeat that since this Intelligence is All, and in all, you can enter into Its
wisdom only by harmonizing with all. If there is anything in your desires or
your purpose which will bring oppression to any, or work injustice to, or cause
lack of life for any, you cannot receive wisdom from the Supreme. Further-
more, your purpose for your own self must be the best.
A person can live in three general ways: for the gratification of his body, for
that of his intellect, or for that of his soul.
The first is accomplished by satisfying the desires for food, drink, and those
other things which give enjoyable physical sensations. The second is accom-
plished by doing those things which cause pleasant mental sensations, such as
gratifying the desire for knowledge or those for fine clothing, fame, power,
and so on. The third is accomplished by giving way to the instincts of unselfish
love and altruism.
A person lives most wisely and completely when he functions most per-
fectly along all of these lines, without excess in any of them. The person who
lives swinishly, for the body alone, is unwise and out of harmony with God.
That person who lives solely for the cold enjoyments of the intellect, though he
be absolutely moral, is unwise and out of harmony with God. And the person
who lives wholly for the practice of altruism, and who throws himself away
for others, is as unwise and as far from harmony with God as those who go to
excess in other ways.
To come into full harmony with the Supreme, you must purpose to LIVE —
to live to the utmost of your capabilities in body, mind, and soul. This must
mean the full exercise of function in all the different ways, but without excess,
for excess in one causes deficiency in the others. Behind your desire for health
is your own desire for more abundant life, and behind that is the desire of the
Formless Intelligence to live more fully in you.
So, as you advance toward perfect health, hold steadily to the purpose to
attain complete life, physical, mental, and spiritual; to advance in all ways, and
in every way to live more. If you hold this purpose you will be given wisdom.
“He that willeth to do the will of the Father shall KNOW,” said Jesus. Wisdom
is the most desirable gift that can come to a person, for it makes him rightly
self-governing.
But wisdom is not all you may receive from the Supreme Intelligence. You
may receive physical energy, vitality, life force. The energy of the Formless
Substance is unlimited, and permeates everything. You are already receiving
or appropriating to yourself this energy in an automatic and instinctive way,
but you can do so to a far greater degree if you set about it intelligently. The
measure of a person’s strength is not what God is willing to give him, but what
he, himself, has the will and the intelligence to appropriate to himself. God
gives you all there is. Your only question is how much to take of the unlimited
supply.

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 Professor James* has pointed out that there is apparently no limit to the pow-
ers of the human being, and this is simply because the human being’s power
comes from the inexhaustible reservoir of the Supreme. The runner who has
reached the stage of exhaustion, when his physical power seems entirely gone,
by running on in a Certain Way may receive his “second wind.” His strength
is renewed in a seemingly miraculous fashion, and he can go on indefinitely.
And by continuing in the Certain Way, he may receive a third, fourth, and fifth
“wind.” We do not know where the limit is, or how far it may be possible to
extend it.
The conditions are that the runner must have absolute faith that the strength
will come, that he must think steadily of strength and have perfect confidence
that he has it, and that he must continue to run on. If he admits a doubt into his
mind, he falls exhausted, and if he stops running to wait for the accession of
strength, it will never come.
His faith in strength, his faith that he can keep on running, his unwavering
purpose** to keep on running, and his action in keeping on seem to connect
him to the source of energy in such a way as to bring him a new supply.
In a very similar manner, the sick person who has unquestioning faith in
health, whose purpose brings him into harmony with the source, and who per-
forms the voluntary functions of life in a certain way, will receive vital energy
sufficient for all his needs, and for the healing of all his diseases.
God, who seeks to live and express himself fully in humanity, delights to
give human beings all that is needed for the most abundant life. Action and
reaction are equal, and when you desire to live more, if you are in mental har-
mony with the Supreme, the forces which make for life begin to concentrate
about you and upon you. The One Life begins to move toward you, and your
environment becomes surcharged with it. Then, if you appropriate it by faith,
it is yours.
“Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Your Father doesn’t
give his spirit by measure; he delights to give good gifts to you.

*William James, MD (1842-1910), sometimes called “the father of modern psychology.”

**Mr. Wattles often uses the word purpose in its old-fashioned meaning: determination. He also uses
it as a verb, to purpose: to be determined or committed, as in, “He purposed to succeed.”

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Chapter 8

Summary of the Mental Actions

et me now summarize the mental actions and attitudes necessary to the
L.... practice of the Science of Being Well: first, you believe that there is a Think-
ing Substance, from which all things are made, and which, in its original
state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. This Sub-
stance is the Life of All, and is seeking to express more life in all. It is the Prin-
ciple of Life of the universe, and the Principle of Health in a human being.
A human being is a form of this Substance, and draws his vitality from it. He
is a mind-body of original substance, permeating a physical body, and the
thoughts of his mind-body control the functioning of his physical body. If a
person thinks no thoughts save those of perfect health, the functions of his
physical body will be performed in a manner of perfect health.
In order to consciously relate yourself to the All-Health, your purpose must
be to live fully on every plane of your being. You must want all that there is in
life for body, mind, and soul, and this will bring you into harmony with all the
life there is.
The person who is in conscious and intelligent harmony with All will re-
ceive a continuous inflow of vital power from the Supreme Life, and this in-
flow is prevented by angry, selfish or antagonistic mental attitudes. If you are
against any part, you have severed relations with all — you will receive life,
but only instinctively and automatically, not intelligently and purposefully.
You can see that if you are mentally antagonistic to any part, you cannot be
in complete harmony with the Whole. Therefore, as Jesus directed, be recon-
ciled to everybody and everything before you offer worship.
Want for everybody all that you want for yourself.
The reader is recommended to read what we have said in a former work
(The Science of Getting Rich) concerning the Competitive mind and the Creative
mind. It is very doubtful whether one who has lost health can completely re-
gain it so long as he remains in the competitive mind.
Being on the Creative or Good-Will plane in mind, the next step is to form a
conception of yourself as in perfect health, and to hold no thoughts which are
not in full harmony with this conception. Have FAITH that if you think only
thoughts of health you will establish in your physical body the functioning of
health; and use your will to determine that you will think only thoughts of
health.

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 Never think of yourself as sick, or as likely to be sick; never think of sickness
in connection with yourself at all. And, as far as may be, shut out of your mind
all thoughts of sickness in connection with others. Surround yourself as much
as possible with the things which suggest the ideas of strength and health.
Have faith in health, and accept health as an actual present fact in your life.
Claim health as a blessing bestowed upon you by the Supreme Life, and be
deeply grateful at all times. Claim the blessing by faith, know that it is yours,
and never admit a contrary thought to your mind.
Use your will-power to withhold your attention from every appearance of
disease in yourself and others. Do not study disease, think about it, nor speak
of it. At all times, when the thought of disease is thrust upon you, move for-
ward into the mental position of prayerful gratitude for your perfect health.
The mental actions necessary to being well may now be summed up in a
single sentence: Form a conception of yourself in perfect health, and think
only those thoughts which are in harmony with that conception.
That — with faith and gratitude and the purpose to really live — covers all
the requirements.
It is not necessary to take mental exercises of any kind, except as described
in Chapter 6, or to do wearying “stunts” in the way of affirmations, and so on.
It is not necessary to concentrate the mind on the affected parts. It is far better
not to think of any part as affected. It is not necessary to “treat” yourself by
auto-suggestion, or to have others treat you in any way whatever. The power
that heals is the Principle of Health within you, and to call this Principle into
Constructive Action it is only necessary, having harmonized yourself with the
All-Mind, to claim by FAITH the All-Health and to hold that claim until it is
physically manifested in all the functions of your body.
In order to hold this mental attitude of faith, gratitude, and health, however,
your external acts must be only those of health. You cannot long hold the inter-
nal attitude of a well person if you continue to perform the external acts of a
sick person. It is essential not only that your every thought should be a thought
of health, but that your every act should be an act of health, performed in a
healthy manner. If you will make every thought a thought of health, and every
conscious act an act of health, it must infallibly follow that every internal and
unconscious function shall come to be healthy, for all the power of life is being
continually exerted toward health.
We shall next consider how you may make every act an act of health.

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Chapter 9

When To Eat
You cannot build and maintain a perfectly healthy body by mental ac-
Y tion alone, or by the performance of the unconscious or involuntary func-
tions alone. There are certain actions, more or less voluntary, which have
.....
a direct and immediate relation with the continuance of life itself. These are
eating, drinking, breathing, and sleeping.
No matter what a person’s thought or mental attitude may be, he cannot live
unless he eats, drinks, breathes, and sleeps, and, moreover, he cannot be well if
he eats, drinks, breathes, and sleeps in an unnatural or wrong manner. It is
therefore vitally important that you should learn the right way to perform these
voluntary functions, and I shall proceed to show you this way, beginning with
the matter of eating, which is most important.
There has been a vast amount of controversy as to when to eat, what to eat,
how to eat, and how much to eat, and all this controversy is unnecessary, for
the Right Way is very easy to find. You have only to consider the Law which
governs all attainment, whether of health, wealth, power, or happiness; and
that law is that you must do what you can do now, where you are now; do every
separate act in the most perfect manner possible, and put the power of faith into every
action.
The processes of digestion and assimilation are under the supervision and
control of an inner division of a person’s mentality, which is generally called
the sub-conscious mind, and I shall use that term here in order to be under-
stood. The sub-conscious mind is in charge of all the functions and processes of
life, and when more food is needed by the body, it makes the fact known by
causing a sensation called hunger.
Whenever food is needed and can be used, there is hunger, and whenever
there is hunger it is time to eat. When there is no hunger it is unnatural and
wrong to eat, no matter how great may APPEAR to be the need for food.
Even if you are in a condition of apparent starvation, with great emaciation,
if there is no hunger you may know that FOOD CANNOT BE USED, and it
will be unnatural and wrong for you to eat.* Though you have not eaten for
days or weeks, if you have no hunger you may be perfectly sure that food
cannot be used, and will probably not be used if taken. Whenever food is needed,

*See the section “Is Prolonged Fasting Safe?” in the Editor’s Notes at the end of this chapter.

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if there is power to digest and assimilate it, so that it can be normally used, the
sub-conscious mind will announce the fact by a decided hunger.
Food, taken when there is no hunger, will sometimes be digested and as-
similated, because Nature makes a special effort to perform the task which is
thrust upon her against her will, but if food is habitually taken when there is no
hunger, the digestive power is at last destroyed, and numberless evils caused.
If the foregoing be true — and it is indisputably so — it is a self-evident
proposition that the natural time (and the healthy time) to eat is when one is
hungry, and that it is never a natural or a healthy action to eat when one is not
hungry. You see, then, that it is an easy matter to scientifically settle the ques-
tion when to eat. ALWAYS eat when you are hungry, and NEVER eat when
you are not hungry. This is obedience to nature, which is obedience to God.
We must not fail, however, to make clear the distinction between hunger and
appetite.
Hunger is the call of the sub-conscious mind for more material to be used in
repairing and renewing the body, and in keeping up the internal heat. Hunger
is never felt unless there is need for more material, and unless there is power to
digest it when taken into the stomach.
Appetite is a desire for the gratification of sensation. The drunkard has an
appetite for liquor, but he cannot have a hunger for it. A normally fed person
cannot have a hunger for candy or sweets. The desire for these things is an
appetite. You cannot hunger for tea, coffee, spiced foods, or for the various
taste-tempting devices of the skilled cook. If you desire these things, it is with
appetite, not with hunger.
Hunger is nature’s call for material to be used in building new cells, and na-
ture never calls for anything which may not be legitimately used for this purpose.
Appetite is often largely a matter of habit. If one eats or drinks at a certain
hour, and especially if one takes sweetened or spiced and stimulating foods,
the desire comes regularly at the same hour, but this habitual desire for food
should never be mistaken for hunger.
Hunger does not appear at specified times. It only comes when work or exer-
cise has used sufficient energy to make the taking in of new raw material a
necessity.
For instance, if a person has been sufficiently fed on the preceding day, it is
impossible that he should feel a genuine hunger on arising from refreshing
sleep. In sleep the body is recharged with vital power, and the assimilation of
the food which has been taken during the day is completed — the system has
no need for food immediately after sleep, unless the person went to his rest in
a state of starvation. With a system of feeding which is even a reasonable ap-
proach to a natural one, no one can have a real hunger for an early morning
breakfast. There is no such thing possible as a normal or genuine hunger im-
mediately after arising from sound sleep.

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 The early morning breakfast is always taken to gratify appetite, never to sat-
isfy hunger. No matter who you are, or what your condition is; no matter how
hard you work, or how much you are exposed, unless you go to your bed
starved, you cannot arise from your bed hungry.
Hunger is not caused by sleep, but by work. And it does not matter who you
are, or what your condition, or how hard or easy your work, the so-called no-
breakfast plan is the right plan for you. It is the right plan for everybody, be-
cause it is based on the universal law that hunger never comes until it is
EARNED. I am aware that a protest against this will come from the large num-
ber of people who “enjoy” their breakfasts, whose breakfast is their “best meal,”
who believe that their work is so hard that they cannot “get through the fore-
noon on an empty stomach, “ and so on. But all their arguments fall down be-
fore the facts.
They enjoy their breakfast as the toper enjoys his morning dram, because it
gratifies a habitual appetite and not because it supplies a natural want. It is their
best meal for the same reason that his morning dram is the toper’s best drink.
And they CAN get along without it, because millions of people, of every trade
and profession, DO get along without it, and are vastly better for doing so.
If you are to live according to the Science of Being Well, you must NEVER
EAT UNTIL YOU HAVE AN EARNED HUNGER.
But if I do not eat on arising in the morning, when shall I take my first meal?
In 99 cases out of a hundred twelve o’clock noon is early enough, and it is
generally the most convenient time. If you are doing heavy work, you will get
by noon a hunger sufficient to justify a good-sized meal. And if your work is
light, you will probably still have hunger enough for a moderate meal. The
best general rule or law that can be laid down is that you should eat your first
meal of the day at noon if you are hungry, and if you are not hungry, wait until
you become so.
And when shall I eat my second meal?
Not at all, unless you are hungry for it — and that with a genuine earned
hunger. If you do get hungry for a second meal, eat at the most convenient
time, but do not eat until you have a really earned hunger.
The reader who wishes to fully inform himself as to the reasons for this way
of arranging the mealtimes will find the best books thereon cited in the preface
to this work. From the foregoing, however, you can easily see that the Science
of Being Well readily answers the question, When, and how often shall I eat?
The answer: Eat when you have an earned hunger, and never eat at any
other time.

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Editor’s Notes
In 1910, before the discovery of vitamins or calories, the role of food for life
and health was unclear to most of western, white society. Even among western
medical doctors, the process of digestion within the stomach and intestines
was not yet understood. The roles of the liver, gall bladder, and pancreas were
not known. How food was absorbed and transported throughout the body
was unknown. The actual cellular processes of the human body were an utter
mystery.
Mr. Wattles reasoned that work, whether mental or physical, “used up” or
destroyed cells which must then be replaced. Hunger was the body’s signal
that cells needed to be built. Sleep, however, was fully restorative, required no
work, and resulted in increased energy. Therefore, he reasoned, sleep could
not result in hunger, because it used no cells.

Is the ‘No-Breakfast Plan’ the One for You?

First, understand that because your body does most of its growing and repair
work during the night while you are sleeping, it is physiologically possible for
you to generate some hunger. But it is rarely enough to require food immedi-
ately on rising. The body’s requirements during sleep are generally filled by
the food eaten at previus meals is still being absorbed from the digestive tract.
Most people who experiment with fasting for some period after first rising
from sleep find that they feel best this way. Many who grew up on dairy farms
report that they would all rise well before sunrise (4 a.m.) and work for a good
four hours before a hearty breakfast at 8 a.m. Others find that it is ideal to
exercise vigorously (walk, run, swim, etc.) and then do some form of breathing
and meditation practice before eating. We don’t know what time Mr. Wattles
was assuming you would awaken if you were to wait until noon to eat, but his
point about waiting until you are actually hungry is well advised.
If you find that you feel ill on waking, or after a prolonged period without
food, and you do not have a blood sugar problem, the most likely explanation
is that your body is reacting to something you ate. Try experimenting with
different foods.
Another less common possibility relates to toxicity. If you have been exposed
to nasty chemicals (for example, you smoked for years or your parents did, or
you grew up in an area where chemicals were sprayed to kill mosquitoes or
agricultural pests), residues of these chemicals are stored in your fat cells. When
your body burns the fat, the chemicals are released into your blood, and you
feel the effects. If you think this is going on, visit a naturopathic doctor for
guidance.
Second, the standard American breakfast of 1910 that Mr. Wattles is warn-
ing against was a large, heavy meal including some combination of ham, sau-
sage, eggs, beef steaks, and pork chops along with biscuits and gravy or corn-

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bread, pastries or bread and jam, and often fruit pie. It is not surprising that a
person would feel better avoiding this gross overindulgence, especially if eaten
before he was actually hungry!
Third, if you have some sort of blood sugar irregularity requiring more fre-
quent meals, your body will let you know you are hungry. The vital aspect of
this “when to eat” recommendation is to learn how to PAY ATTENTION TO
YOUR BODY with the relaxed attitude of gratitude, trust, curiosity, and un-
conditional love rather than being pushed around by habit, fear, anxiety, social
customs, other people’s schedules and other people’s ideas about what is good
for you.

Is Prolonged Fasting Safe?

If you are starved or emaciated, and have not eaten for days or weeks, is it safe
to wait to eat until you feel hunger?
There is a wide variety of physical, mental, and psychological conditions
that may be involved in a person becoming starved or emaciated. Medical su-
pervision by a doctor familiar with conditions like this is essential. In modern
times, we are equipped with all sorts of testing and monitoring to more accu-
rately guide a person through critical states. We also have methods of nourish-
ment that bypass the digestive tract when a weakened person can’t digest food.
However, it is important to understand the source of Mr. Wattles’ convic-
tion that if you are not hungry, “food cannot be used, and that it is unnatural
and wrong for you to eat.” Wattles clearly drew many of his ideas about the
effectiveness of medicine and eating habits from the works of Edward Hooker
Dewey, M.D., who he names in the preface to this book. You can read fascinat-
ing excerpts from Dr. Dewey’s 1900 book, The No-Breakfast Plan and The Fasting
Cure, in the section “Historical Notes on When, What, and How to Eat” at the
end of this book.

Should You Eat Only One Meal a Day?

Mr. Wattles says that in most cases a person will not have an “earned” hunger
for more than one meal per day. This might be true if your one meal is high in
fat and animal protein. However, we now know that perfect health requires
nutrients which in most climates are found in fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts,
seeds, and grains. Also, we know that fiber, found only in plant foods, is im-
portant. Many of these foods, particularly the highest quality vegetables, are
very low in calories. You would need to eat more than once per day to con-
sume enough of these for perfect health.
As you learn to trust the “voice” of your body rather than your appetite (as
described by Mr. Wattles), you will naturally want to eat what your body re-
quires, when your body requires it. If you have never tried eating just once a
day, try it. If you frequently find yourself getting so caught up in other activi-

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ties that you “forget to eat,” chances are you have trained your mind to ignore
your body’s needs for food, water, and even movement. Experimentation dur-
ing a time of restful vacation may be the only way to discover how to listen to
your body. If, on the other hand, you are in the habit of eating continuously,
you also may have lost communication with your body. A fast of a full day or
two may be required before you can detect true hunger.

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Chapter 10

What To Eat
The current sciences of medicine and hygiene have made no progress

.T
... toward answering the question, What shall I eat? The contests between
the vegetarians and the meat eaters, the cooked food advocates, raw food
advocates, and various other “schools” of theorists, seem to be interminable.
And from the mountains of evidence and argument piled up for and against
each special theory, it is plain that if we depend on these scientists we shall
never know what is the natural food of humans. Turning away from the whole
controversy, then, we will ask the question of Nature herself, and we shall find
that she has not left us without an answer.
On the question of what to eat, the answer is simple: Eat what Nature pro-
vides. The One Living Substance from which all things are made has made an
abundance of perfect foods for every person in every place humans can live,
and has given every person the physical and mental faculties to know what
foods he should eat and how and when he should eat them.
Whenever people have attempted to “improve” on Nature, they go wrong.
For humanity does not yet know enough not to go wrong. Nature is the physi-
cal form of the One Living Substance, operating according to the rules of the
One Living Substance, with the energy of the One Living Substance. Nature
provides every person exactly what is needed for perfect health.
The Great Intelligence, which is in and through all, has in reality practically
settled the question as to what we shall eat. In ordering the affairs of nature, It
has decided that a human being’s food shall be according to the zone in which
he lives. These are the foods best for the requirements of the climate. These are
the foods which will be the freshest when a person eats them, and therefore
most filled with the life force of the One Living Substance. In acquiring these
foods a person can be in closest association with the Principle of Life that cre-
ated them. Therefore, a person need only ask himself what food grows and
lives where he lives.
How shall a person know which of these foods to eat, according to his age,
gender, ancestry, condition of health, exposure to cold, physical and mental
activity?
Again, we see that the Great Intelligence operating in Nature answers the
question. It provides a variety of foods in every zone, and it provides a human
being with hunger and taste.

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 A person needs food as a raw material for the Principle of Health in his own
body to direct in providing energy, heat, defense, and tissue repair and growth.
He needs protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals. These are found
in the flesh, milk, blood, eggs, bones, and organs of water and land creatures,
and in the roots, stems, leaves, flowers, seeds, grains, nuts, and fruits of land
and water plants. The Great Intelligence guides the masses of people to dis-
cover ways of procuring and preparing these foods in harmony with Nature. A
person’s own Principle of Health guides his hunger and taste to the particular
foods that will fill its needs.
With all the various ways food is prepared, how shall a person know the
proper way?
He should procure and prepare his food in ways that cooperate with Na-
ture. It is only when people work against Nature that they go wrong. To illus-
trate this point let us compare the health of people working in cooperation
with Nature with the health of these same people working against Nature.
In every climate there are tribes who have learned over thousands of years
the wisdom of nature and the best ways to gather, prepare, and eat the foods of
the region in perfect harmony with the seasons and cycles of Nature.
The perfect health of these people provides a shining example of what is
possible in physical strength and endurance, perfect eyesight and teeth, lon-
gevity, skill and agility, mental development, morality, and overall well-being.
Moreover, they have learned the secrets of healthy reproduction and child-
rearing such that there are not only happy, healthy children, but the absence of
unsociable behavior.
What secrets of eating are followed by these perfectly healthy people?
• They eat only foods that occur in nature or that can be simply made from these.
• They eat only the best foods, and parts of foods, with the greatest nutrient
content.
• They eat both animal and plant foods.
• Many foods from both plant and animal sources are eaten raw.
• From wild animals, bones, and organs are as important as (and often pre-
ferred over) muscle meat.
• From domesticated animals, fresh milk (and in some cases, even blood) is
drawn. When milk products are used, they are made from milk taken from
vitally healthy animals after they have been well fed on newly growing spring
grasses.
• Cheese, butter, and other milk products that can be stored for later use are
made from this milk. During other seasons, the animals are fed the highest
quality hay.
• For some groups, insects in both adult and immature forms are important
food sources, even where other animal foods are available.

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 • In zones near the sea, sea creatures are the source of animal food. Fish eggs
are a rich source of nutrients. Where they are not available year-round, both
the flesh and eggs of fish are dried for winter use in a way that preserves or
increases nutrient content.
• Plant foods are eaten liberally during the season in which they grow and
are ripe. Where they are not growing year-round, some are preserved for win-
ter use in ways that preserves their nutrients.
• Sweet foods of all kinds are eaten only sparingly on special occasions. Re-
fined sugar is avoided altogether, as are all foods made by adding refined sugar.
• Land used for plant cultivation is fertilized liberally with natural substances,
and allowed periods of rest.
• Grains are eaten whole, or ground immediately before use. The entire grain
is used.
• Women are supplied with extra high nutrient diets for several months be-
fore marriage and pregnancy, and during pregnancy and lactation. Childbirth
is carefully spaced three years apart so that the mother can nurse her child,
then replenish her body in preparation for the next pregnancy.
• Young men are also fed extra-high nutrient diets in preparation for father-
ing children.
• Children are nursed, then given high nutrient foods to help them grow.
• There are times of natural decrease in food supply, and ceremonial times,
when the people eat less, or not at all.
• The people actively participate in the physical pursuit of growing, gather-
ing, hunting, and preparing their food. They have community ceremonies of
gratitude and celebration.
These are the practices of the healthiest people on earth.
What happens when these same people abandon their way of living and
eating and replace their foods with unnatural foods?
They develop disease, deformity, misery, and unsociable behavior.
What are the unnatural foods that cause these effects?
They are refined and preserved foods from which natural life has been removed
or lost, or sugar and flavors added to hide the absence of nutrients. They are
foods so old that no life force remains in them. They are foods from unhealthy
plants and animals, containing life force that bears the impression of weakness
or disease.
What is needed for perfect health is vital food, brimming with life force,
eaten according to the practices of healthy people.
How shall the modern city dweller acquire this vital food and incorporate
these practices into his life?
First is to remember that he is to eat the food Nature provides in the zone in
which he lives.

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 He must align himself with the Principle of Life with gratitude that there is
abundant food for all and with faith that he will be perfectly guided to the best
sources available in his area. Perfect health requires a relationship with the
Source of all food with faith, gratitude, and joy. Food must be gathered with
the attitude of more life to all and less to none.
A person must either learn to grow and gather, raise animals, hunt and
fish, or find those who do. If he does not procure his own food directly from
Nature, he must form a friendly relationship with those who do. He can then
knowingly choose to deal with those who operate in harmony with Nature,
exercising gratitude and wisdom.
The person who does not know how to identify a farmer or hunter following
the natural laws of producing and finding food can be guided by these simple
concepts:
Choosing your food providers
1. The food provider is healthy, happy, and of a generous spirit.
2. He uses no poisons of any kind in the production of foods.
3. If he raises animals, they are healthy and treated with kindness, respect,
and gratitude. They are fed only the best foods for their health, not for abnor-
mal growth or food production. They are not confined in unhealthy condi-
tions, but given freedom to move about normally, and only sheltered for their
protection.
4. If he fishes or hunts, he catches or kills lake, river, land or sea creatures in
their natural environment. He uses means that ensure the healthy survival of
all the species caught, whether or not they are the ones to be eaten.
5. If he farms, he uses only healthy, living soil uncontaminated by previous
poisons. He replenishes the life of the soil so that his crops are rich in natural
nutrients. His crops and soil are so healthy that they do not attract pests, and
he farms in such a way that birds and other creatures eating the insects on his
farm are unharmed. Any water running off his land contains no chemicals that
will harm any other part of life.
These are the characteristics of a person who knows the laws of Nature in
the production and procurement of food.
You must also know how to determine the correct people with whom to as-
sociate in any other steps of obtaining your food.
Do not associate with anyone in the process of procuring food who speaks of
disease, fear, or lack in any way. Associate only with those who gratefully and
joyfully appreciate the life-giving qualities of food, are happy to grow it, har-
vest it, prepare it, serve it, eat it, and know that there is an abundance of the
best food for all. This is important whether you are dealing with someone who
is selling you land on which to farm, or a farmer, or butcher, or truck driver, or
store clerk, or cook, or waiter in a restaurant.

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 You must not eat foods produced or transported carelessly, or treated in any
other way than as precious, life-giving substances. This is easily accomplished
when you are the one procuring the food from its natural source or if you are in
direct and harmonious relationship with all those who are.
The city dweller who thinks it is too difficult or too expensive to obtain food
in this way need only review The Science of Getting Rich. All his doubts will
there be answered. He will be guided in the correct manner of acquiring all the
money he wants, and in attracting to himself all other resources he desires.
Once a person is supplied with a variety of vital foods from which to choose,
how shall he know what to eat at a given meal? Here is the only needed guide-
line: Eat what your body wants. Your body wants what the Principle of Health
requires to create perfect health.
What your body wants is determined very simply. The thought of the food,
when you are truly hungry, is appealing. The taste of the food while chewing it
is pleasant. After eating, your body feels energized and satisfied. There is no
sleepiness, irritability, congestion, pain, discomfort of any kind, from the mo-
ment you begin to eat until the next day. Over a period of days, weeks and
months, you continue to feel well.
This is how you will know you are eating the correct foods. Then you will
not need to give the least thought to what you should or should not eat. You
will want the right foods. The Principle of Health in your own body will guide
you to know what to eat just as surely as it will guide you to know when to eat.
If you do not eat until you have an EARNED hunger, you will not find your
taste demanding unnatural or unhealthy foods. If you make an association with
your source of food that brings joy and gratitude, you will further increase
your desire to eat what is natural and healthy.
It is when a person becomes lazy and allows himself to be tempted by taste
and convenience rather than following the Great Intelligence with which he is
bestowed, that he pays the price of decreased health.
When you learn to cooperate with Nature you will want what is good for you,
and you will eat what you want. This you can do with perfect results if you eat
in the right way, and how to do this will be explained in the next chapter.

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Chapter 11

How To Eat
t is a settled fact that a person naturally chews his food. The few faddists
I.. who maintain that we should bolt our nourishment, after the manner of
the dog and others of the lower animals, can no longer get a hearing. We
know that we should chew our food. And if it is natural that we should chew
our food, the more thoroughly we chew it the more completely natural the
process must be. If you will chew every mouthful to a liquid, you need not be
in the least concerned as to whether you are getting enough nutrients, for you
have already chosen the best foods according to Natural Law.
Whether or not this chewing shall be an irksome and laborious task or a
most enjoyable process, depends upon the mental attitude in which you come
to the table.
If your mind and attitude are on other things, or if you are anxious or wor-
ried about business or domestic affairs, you will find it almost impossible to
eat without bolting more or less of your food. You must learn to live so scientif-
ically that you will have no business or domestic cares to worry about. This
you can do.
You must also arrange your life so that you are not in the presence of others
who distract from the enjoyment of your meal. This way, you can learn to give
your undivided attention to the act of eating while at the table.
The matter of eating only when in a peaceful state of mind must be empha-
sized. You must focus on gratitude before eating the food on your table and on
the full enjoyment of each bite while eating. After eating, you must again focus
on gratitude for the vital force from the food supplied to you through the One
Living Substance. These mental actions will assist in the physical extraction of
vital force from your food, and in bringing the Principle of Health within you
into full Constructive Activity.
You must therefore eat with an eye single to the purpose of getting all the en-
joyment you can from that meal. Dismiss everything else from your mind, and
do not let anything take your attention from the food and its taste until your
meal is finished. Be cheerfully confident, for if you follow these instructions
you may KNOW that the food you eat is exactly the right food, and that it will
“agree” with you to perfection.
Sit down to the table with confident cheerfulness, and take a moderate por-
tion of the food. Take whatever thing looks most desirable to you. Do not select

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some food because you think it will be good for you — select that which will
taste good to you. If you are to get well and stay well, you must drop the idea
of doing things because they are good for your health, and do things because
you want to do them. Select the food you want most, gratefully give thanks to
God that you have learned how to eat it in such a way that digestion shall be
perfect, and take a moderate mouthful of it.
Do not fix your attention on the act of chewing; fix it on the TASTE of the
food. And taste and enjoy it until it is reduced to a liquid state and passes
down your throat by involuntary swallowing.
No matter how long it takes, do not think of the time. Think of the taste. Do
not allow your eyes to wander over the table, speculating as to what you shall
eat next. Do not worry for fear there is not enough, and that you will not get
your share of everything. Do not anticipate the taste of the next thing. Keep
your mind centered on the taste of what you have in your mouth.
And that is all of it.
Scientific and healthful eating is a delightful process after you have learned
how to do it, and after you have overcome the bad old habit of gobbling down
your food unchewed. It is best not to have too much conversation going on
while eating. Be cheerful, but not talkative. Do the talking afterward.
In most cases, some use of the will is required to form the habit of correct
eating. The bolting habit is an unnatural one, and is without doubt mostly the
result of fear. Fear that we will be robbed of our food, fear that we will not get
our share of the good things, fear that we will lose precious time — these are
the causes of haste. Then there is anticipation of the dainties that are to come
for dessert and the consequent desire to get at them as quickly as possible. And
there is mental abstraction, or thinking of other matters while eating. All these
must be overcome.
When you find that your mind is wandering, call a halt. Think for a moment
of the food and of how good it tastes, of the perfect digestion and assimilation
that are going to follow the meal, and begin again. Begin again and again, though
you must do so 20 times in the course of a single meal. And again and again,
though you must do so every meal for weeks and months. It is perfectly certain
that you CAN form the “Fletcher habit”* if you persevere, and when you have
formed it, you will experience a healthful pleasure you have never known.
This is a vital point, and I must not leave it until I have thoroughly impressed
it upon your mind. Given the right materials, perfectly prepared, the Principle
of Health will positively build you a perfectly healthy body, and you cannot
prepare the materials perfectly in any other way than the one I am describing.
If you are to have perfect health, you MUST eat in just this way. You can,
and the doing of it is only a matter of a little perseverance. What use for you to
talk of mental control unless you will govern yourself in so simple a matter as

*See Glossary at end of book.

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ceasing to bolt your food? What use to talk of concentration unless you can
keep your mind on the act of eating for so short a space as 15 or 20 minutes,
especially with all the pleasures of taste to help you?
Go on, and conquer. In a few weeks, or months, as the case may be, you will
find the habit of scientific eating becoming fixed, and soon you will be in so
splendid a condition, mentally and physically, that nothing would induce you
to return to the bad old way.
We have seen that if a person will think only thoughts of perfect health, his
internal functions will be performed in a healthy manner, and we have seen
that in order to think thoughts of health, a person must perform the voluntary
functions in a healthy manner. The most important of the voluntary functions
is that of eating, and we see, so far, no special difficulty in eating in a perfectly
healthy way.
I will here summarize the instructions as to when to eat, what to eat, and
how to eat, with the reasons why:
NEVER eat until you have an EARNED hunger, no matter how long you
go without food. This is based on the fact that whenever food is needed in the
system, if there is power to digest it, the sub-conscious mind announces the
need by the sensation of hunger.
Learn to distinguish between genuine hunger and the gnawing and craving
sensations caused by unnatural appetite. Hunger is never a disagreeable feel-
ing, accompanied by weakness, faintness, or gnawing feelings at the stomach.
It is a pleasant, anticipatory desire for food. It does not come at certain hours or
at stated intervals. It only comes when the body is ready to receive, digest, and
assimilate food.
Eat whatever foods you want, making your selection from the full variety of
the best foods found in the zone in which you live. The Supreme Intelligence
has guided humanity to the selection of these foods, and they are the right
ones. I am referring, of course, to the foods which are taken to satisfy hunger,
not to those which have been contrived merely to gratify appetite or perverted
taste. The instinct which has guided people to make use of the great staples of
food to satisfy their hunger is a divine one. God has made no mistake; if you
eat these foods you will not go wrong.
Eat your food with cheerful confidence in a pleasant atmosphere, and get
all the pleasure that is to be had from the taste of every mouthful. Chew each
morsel to a liquid, keeping your attention fixed on the enjoyment of the pro-
cess. This is the only way to eat in a perfectly complete and successful manner;
and when anything is done in a completely successful manner, the general
result cannot be a failure.
In the attainment of health, the law is the same as in the attainment of riches:
if you make each act a success in itself, the sum of all your acts must be a
success. When you eat in the mental attitude I have described, and in the man-
ner I have described, nothing can be added to the process — it is done in a per-

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fect manner, and it is successfully done. And if eating is successfully done, di-
gestion, assimilation, and the building of a healthy body are successfully be-
gun.
We next take up the question of the quantity of food required.

Editor’s Notes
Is It Appetite or Hunger?
Mr. Wattles states: “Hunger is never a disagreeable feeling, accompanied by
weakness, faintness, or gnawing feelings at the stomach. It is a pleasant, antici-
patory desire for food.”
First, understand that Mr. Wattles is referring to the hunger sensation in
people who are able to eat when hungry. This does not apply to those who are
hungry but have been deprived of food, such as in famine.
Second, this statement may be confusing for those with food allergies or
food sensitivities, eating disorders, blood sugar regulation problems, or other
biochemical imbalances. Consuming sweets, artificial foods, or alcohol also con-
fuses hunger sensation. I will address those briefly here, and recommend that
you work with a naturopathic doctor, dietitian, or nutritionist if you have any
of these issues.
If you have food allergies or sensitivities (other food reactions) you may ex-
perience symptoms of weakness, faintness, gnawing feelings, irritability, and a
host of other “disagreeable” feelings only a couple of hours after eating. Often
you will crave the very foods to which you are sensitive or allergic. Many people
who are sensitive to wheat and/or sugar crave bread or sweets. This would be
“unnatural appetite.”
Alcohol and sweets (including juice, sodas, and other sweet drinks) will usu-
ally create an “unnatural appetite.” After consuming them, you usually want
to eat more than you would eat otherwise.
Some people are familiar with the problem of overgrowth of intestinal yeast.
The yeast creates an alcohol (a metabolic byproduct of the yeast) which is ab-
sorbed into the bloodstream, and causes effects similar to drinking alcohol —
”unnatural appetite.” This and other biochemical imbalances are best diag-
nosed by a doctor.
Filling up on foods with low nutrient content or “empty calories” (common
in artificial or highly processed foods) will leave the body needing nutrients.
The hunger signal is confused because the body wants the nutrients but does
not need the calories. Usually a person continues to eat to try to fill the lack, but
gets caught up in craving more empty foods. This would be “unnatural appe-
tite.” The obvious solution is to eat naturally high-nutrient foods.
If you have a problem with blood sugar regulation (hypoglycemia, diabetes)
your body will signal its need for food with these same symptoms of weakness,
faintness, gnawing feelings, and irritability. In this case there is actual hunger.

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You should work with a doctor who specializes in using nutrition to help regu-
late blood sugar.
If you have an eating disorder such as bingeing, bulemia, or anorexia, it may
be impossible for you to detect true hunger. Likewise, if you have a physical
condition or are taking medicine that causes nausea or otherwise affects your
desire for food, hunger may not be reliable. In these cases, a doctor should
guide you in applying Mr. Wattles’ eating plan.

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Chapter 12

Hunger and Appetites

It is very easy to find the correct answer to the question, How much shall I
I eat?
You are never to eat until you have an earned hunger, and you are to
..
stop eating the instant you BEGIN to feel that your hunger is abating. Never
gorge yourself. Never eat to repletion. When you begin to feel that your hunger
is satisfied, know that you have enough. For until you have enough, you will
continue to feel the sensation of hunger.
If you eat as directed in the last chapter, it is probable that you will begin to
feel satisfied before you have taken half your usual amount, but stop there, all
the same. No matter how delightfully attractive the dessert, or how tempting
the pie or pudding, do not eat a mouthful of it if you find that your hunger has
been in the least degree assuaged by the other foods you have taken.
Whatever you eat after your hunger begins to abate is taken to gratify taste
and appetite, not hunger and is not called for by nature at all. It is therefore
excess — mere debauchery — and it cannot fail to work mischief.
This is a point you will need to watch with nice discrimination, for the habit
of eating purely for sensual gratification is very deeply rooted with most of us.
The usual “dessert” of sweet and tempting foods is prepared solely with a
view to inducing people to eat after hunger has been satisfied, and all the ef-
fects are evil. For the effect of eating these unwholesome foods is often an in-
crease in appetite.
The same is true of alcohol taken before eating. Both will trick you to eat far
more than you would otherwise want, and make it difficult to focus your at-
tention on the satisfaction of your true hunger. You will find that if you eat as
directed in the preceding chapters, the plainest food will soon come to taste
like kingly fare to you, for your sense of taste, like all your other senses, will
become so acute with the general improvement in your condition that you will
find new delights in common things.
No glutton ever enjoyed a meal like the person who eats for hunger only,
who gets the most out of every mouthful, and who stops on the instant that he
feels the edge taken from his hunger. The first intimation that hunger is abat-
ing is the signal from the sub-conscious mind that it is time to quit.
The average person who takes up this plan of living will be greatly surprised
to learn how little food is really required to keep the body in perfect condition.

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The amount depends upon the work — upon how much muscular exercise is
taken, and upon the extent to which the person is exposed to cold.
The woodchopper who goes into the forest in the winter time and swings his
axe all day can eat two full meals, but the brain worker who sits all day on a
chair, in a warm room, does not need one-third and often not one-tenth as much.
Most woodchoppers eat two or three times as much, and most brain workers
from three to ten times as much as nature calls for, and the elimination of this
vast amount of surplus rubbish from their systems is a tax on vital power which
in time depletes their energy and leaves them an easy prey to so-called disease.
Get all possible enjoyment out of the taste of your food, but never eat any-
thing merely because it tastes good. And on the instant that you feel that your
hunger is less keen, stop eating.
If you will consider for a moment, you will see that there is positively no
other way for you to settle these various food questions than by adopting the
plan here laid down for you. As to the proper time to eat, there is no other way
to decide than to say that you should eat whenever you have an EARNED
HUNGER. It is a self-evident proposition that that is the right time to eat, and
that any other is a wrong time to eat.
As to what to eat, the Eternal Wisdom has decided that the people shall eat
the best products of the zones in which they live. The staple foods of your par-
ticular zone are the right foods for you, and the Eternal Wisdom, working in
and through the minds of people, has taught them how best to prepare these
foods by cooking and otherwise.
And as to how to eat, you know that you must chew your food in a peaceful
state of mind, and if food must be chewed, then reason tells us that the more
thorough and perfect the operation the better.
I repeat that success in anything is attained by making each separate act a
success in itself. If you make each action, however small and unimportant, a
thoroughly successful action, your day’s work as a whole cannot result in fail-
ure. If you make the actions of each day successful, the sum total of your life
cannot be failure.
A great success is the result of doing a large number of little things, and do-
ing each one in a perfectly successful way. If every thought is a healthy thought,
and if every action of your life is performed in a healthy way, you must soon
attain to perfect health. It is impossible to devise a way in which you can per-
form the act of eating more successfully, and in a manner more in accord with
the laws of life, than by chewing every mouthful to a liquid, enjoying the taste
fully, and keeping a cheerful confidence the while. Nothing can be added to
make the process more successful, while if anything be subtracted, the process
will not be a completely healthy one.
In the matter of how much to eat, you will also see that there could be no
other guide so natural, so safe, and so reliable as the one I have prescribed — to

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stop eating on the instant you feel that your hunger begins to abate. The sub-
conscious mind may be trusted with implicit reliance to inform us when food
is needed, and it may be trusted as implicitly to inform us when the need has
been supplied. If ALL food is eaten for hunger, and NO food is taken merely to
gratify taste, you will never eat too much, and if you eat whenever you have an
EARNED hunger, you will always eat enough.
By reading carefully the summing up in the following chapter, you will see
that the requirements for eating in a perfectly healthy way are really very few
and simple.
The matter of drinking in a natural way may be dismissed here with a very
few words. If you wish to be exactly and rigidly scientific, drink nothing but
water, drink only when you are thirsty, drink whenever you are thirsty, and
stop as soon as you feel that your thirst begins to abate.
But if you are living rightly in regard to eating, it will not be necessary to
practice asceticism or great self-denial in the matter of drinking. You can take
an occasional cup of weak coffee without harm. You can, to a reasonable ex-
tent, follow the customs of those around you.
Do not get the soda fountain habit. Do not drink merely to tickle your palate
with sweet liquids.
Be sure that you take a drink of water whenever you feel thirst. Never be too
lazy, too indifferent, or too busy to get a drink of water when you feel the least
thirst. If you obey this rule, you will have little inclination to take strange and
unnatural drinks. Drink only to satisfy thirst, drink whenever you feel thirst,
and stop drinking as soon as you feel thirst abating. That is the perfectly healthy
way to supply the body with the necessary fluid material for its internal pro-
cesses.

Editor’s Note
Coffee?
If your standard breakfast is a cup of coffee and you don’t feel awake until you
have it, or you use coffee to perk yourself up during the day, or if you feel
angry and threatened at the thought of not being able to have it, you are using
coffee like a drug. This is definitely NOT the occasional cup of weak coffee that
Mr. Wattles says is OK if you are otherwise following the eating plan.
If you want health, focus on building your desire for health so that it is greater
than your desire for anything that does not support health.

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Chapter 13

In a Nutshell
here is a Cosmic Life which permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces

.T
... of the universe, being in and through all things. This Life is not merely a
vibration, or form of energy — it is a Living Substance. All things are
made from it. It is All, and in all.
This Substance thinks, and it assumes the form of that which it thinks about.
The thought of a form, in this substance, creates the form; the thought of a mo-
tion institutes the motion. The visible universe, with all its forms and motions,
exists because it is in the thought of Original Substance.
A human being is a form of Original Substance and can think original
thoughts, and within himself a person’s thoughts have controlling or forma-
tive power. The thought of a condition produces that condition; the thought of
a motion institutes that motion. So long as a person thinks of the conditions
and motions of disease, so long will the conditions and motions of disease exist
within him. If a person will think only of perfect health, the Principle of Health
within him will maintain normal conditions.
To be well, a person must form a conception of perfect health, and hold
thoughts harmonious with that conception as regards himself and all things.
He must think only of healthy conditions and functioning. He must not permit
a thought of unhealthy or abnormal conditions or functioning to find lodg-
ment in his mind at any time.
In order to think only of healthy conditions and functioning, a person must
perform the voluntary acts of life in a perfectly healthy way. He cannot think
perfect health so long as he knows that he is living in a wrong or unhealthy
way, or even so long as he has doubts as to whether or not he is living in a
healthy way.
A person cannot think thoughts of perfect health while his voluntary func-
tions are performed in the manner of one who is sick. The voluntary functions
of life are eating, drinking, breathing, and sleeping. When a person thinks only
of healthy conditions and functioning, and performs these externals in a per-
fectly healthy manner, he must have perfect health.
In eating, a person must learn to be guided by his hunger. He must distin-
guish between hunger and appetite, and between hunger and the cravings of
habit. He must NEVER eat unless he feels an EARNED HUNGER.

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 He must learn that genuine hunger is never present after natural sleep, and
that the demand for an early morning meal is purely a matter of habit and ap-
petite; and he must not begin his day by eating in violation of natural law. He
must wait until he has an Earned Hunger, which, in most cases, will make his
first meal come at about the noon hour.
No matter what his condition, vocation, or circumstances, he must make it
his rule not to eat until he has an EARNED HUNGER, and he may remember
that it is far better to fast for several hours after he has become hungry than to
eat before he begins to feel hunger. It will not hurt you to go hungry for a few
hours, even though you are working hard, but it will hurt you to fill your stom-
ach when you are not hungry, whether you are working or not. If you never eat
until you have an Earned Hunger, you may be certain that in so far as the time
of eating is concerned, you are proceeding in a perfectly healthy way. This is a
self-evident proposition.
As to what he shall eat, a person must be guided by that Intelligence which
has arranged that the people of any given portion of the earth’s surface must
live on the staple products of the zone which they inhabit. Have faith in God,
and trust God’s ability to guide your taste to that which your body requires. Do
not worry over the controversies as to the relative merits of cooked and raw foods,
of vegetables and meats, or as to your need for carbohydrates and proteins.
Eat only when you have an earned hunger, and then take the best foods of
the healthy people in the zone in which you live, and have perfect confidence
that the results will be good. They will be.
Do not seek for luxuries, or for things imported or fixed up to tempt the taste.
Stick to the plain foods, and when these do not “taste good,” fast until they do.
Then you will be functioning in a perfectly healthy manner, so far as what to eat
is concerned. I repeat, if you have no hunger or taste for the plain foods, do not
eat at all. Wait until hunger comes. Go without eating until the plainest food
tastes good to you, and then begin your meal with what you like best.
In deciding how to eat, a person must be guided by reason. We can see that
the abnormal states of hurry and worry produced by wrong thinking about
business and similar things have led us to form the habit of eating too fast, and
chewing too little.
We know that an angry or distracting atmosphere upsets the process of di-
gestion. Reason tells us that food should be chewed, and that the more thor-
oughly it is chewed the better it is prepared for the chemistry of digestion.
Furthermore, we can see that the person who eats slowly and chews his food to
a liquid, keeping his mind on the process and giving it his undivided attention,
will enjoy more of the pleasure of taste than he who bolts his food with his
mind on something else.
To eat in a perfectly healthy manner, a person must concentrate his attention
on the act with cheerful enjoyment and confidence. He must taste his food, and

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he must reduce each mouthful to a liquid before swallowing it. The foregoing
instructions, if followed, make the function of eating completely perfect. Noth-
ing can be added as to what, when, and how.
In the matter of how much to eat, a person must be guided by the same
inward intelligence, or Principle of Health, which tells him when food is wanted.
He must stop eating in the moment that he feels hunger abating; he must not
eat beyond this point to gratify taste. If he ceases to eat in the instant that the
inward demand for food ceases he will never overeat, and the function of sup-
plying the body with food will be performed in a perfectly healthy manner.
The matter of eating naturally is a very simple one; there is nothing in all the
foregoing that cannot be easily practiced by anyone. This method, put into
practice, will infallibly result in perfect digestion and assimilation, and all anxi-
ety and careful thought concerning the matter can at once be dropped from the
mind. Whenever you have an earned hunger, eat with thankfulness from the
variety of natural foods before you, chewing each mouthful to a liquid, and
stopping when you feel the edge taken from your hunger.
The importance of the mental attitude is sufficient to justify an additional
word.
While you are eating, as at all other times, think only of healthy conditions
and normal functioning. Enjoy what you eat. If you carry on a conversation at
the table, talk of the goodness of the food, and of the pleasure it is giving you.
Never mention that you dislike this or that. Speak only of those things which
you like. Never discuss the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of foods. Never
mention or think of unwholesomeness at all.
If there is anything on the table for which you do not care, pass it by in si-
lence, or with a word of commendation. Never criticize or object to anything.
Eat your food with gladness and with singleness of heart, praising God and
giving thanks. Let your watchword be perseverance. Whenever you fall into
the old way of hasty eating, or of wrong thought and speech, bring yourself up
short and begin again.
It is of the most vital importance to you that you should be a self-controlling
and self-directing person, and you can never hope to become so unless you can
master yourself in so simple and fundamental a matter as the manner and
method of your eating.
If you cannot control yourself in this, you cannot control yourself in any-
thing that will be worthwhile.
On the other hand, if you carry out the foregoing instructions, you may rest
in the assurance that in so far as right thinking and right eating are concerned
you are living in a perfectly scientific way, and you may also be assured that if
you practice what is prescribed in the following chapters you will quickly build
your body into a condition of perfect health.

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Chapter 14

Breathing
he function of breathing is a vital one, and it immediately concerns the con-

.T
... tinuance of life. We can live many hours without sleeping, and many days
without eating or drinking, but only a few minutes without breathing.
The act of breathing is involuntary, but the manner of it and the provision of
the proper conditions for its healthy performance fall within the scope of voli-
tion. A person will continue to breathe involuntarily, but he can voluntarily
determine what he shall breathe, and how deeply and thoroughly he shall
breathe. And he can, of his own volition, keep the physical mechanism in con-
dition for the perfect performance of the function.
It is essential, if you wish to breathe in a perfectly healthy way, that the
physical machinery used in the act should be kept in good condition. You must
keep your spine moderately straight, and the muscles of your chest must be
flexible and free in action. You cannot breathe in the right way if your shoul-
ders are greatly stooped forward and your chest hollow and rigid. Sitting or
standing at work in a slightly stooping position tends to produce a hollow
chest. So does lifting heavy weights — or light weights.
The tendency of work, of almost all kinds, is to pull the shoulders forward,
curve the spine, and flatten the chest, and if the chest is greatly flattened, full
and deep breathing becomes impossible and perfect health is out of the question.
Various gymnastic exercises have been devised to counteract the effect of
stooping while at work, such as hanging by the hands from a swing or trapeze
bar, or sitting on a chair with the feet under some heavy article of furniture and
bending backward until the head touches the floor, and so on. All these are
good enough in their way, but very few people will follow them long enough
and regularly enough to accomplish any real gain in physique. The taking of
“health exercises” of any kind is burdensome and unnecessary.
There is a more natural, simpler, and much better way.
This better way is to keep yourself straight, and to breathe deeply. Let your
mental conception of yourself be that you are a perfectly straight person, and
whenever the matter comes to your mind, be sure that you instantly expand
your chest, throw back your shoulders, and “straighten up.”
Whenever you do this, slowly draw in your breath until you fill your lungs
to their utmost capacity. “Crowd in” all the air you possibly can, and while
holding it for an instant in the lungs, throw your shoulders still further back,

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and stretch your chest. At the same time try to pull your spine forward be-
tween the shoulders. Then let the air go easily.
This is the one great exercise for keeping the chest full, flexible, and in good
condition. Straighten up, fill your lungs FULL, stretch your chest and straighten
your spine, and exhale easily. And this exercise you must repeat, in season and
out of season, at all times and in all places, until you form a habit of doing it.
You can easily do so.
Whenever you step out of doors into the fresh, pure air, BREATHE. When
you are at work, and think of yourself and your position, BREATHE. When
you are in company, and are reminded of the matter, BREATHE. When you
are awake in the night, BREATHE. No matter where you are or what you are
doing, whenever the idea comes to your mind, straighten up and BREATHE. If
you walk to and from your work, take this exercise all the way. It will soon
become a delight to you, and you will keep it up, not for the sake of health, but
as a matter of pleasure.
Do not consider this a “health exercise.” Never take health exercises or do gym-
nastics to make you well. To do so is to recognize sickness as a present fact or as a
possibility, which is precisely what you must not do. The people who are always
taking exercises for their health are always thinking about being sick. It ought
to be a matter of pride with you to keep your spine straight and strong — as
much so as it is to keep your face clean.
Keep your spine straight, and your chest full and flexible for the same rea-
son that you keep your hands clean and your nails manicured — because it is
slovenly to do otherwise. Do it without a thought of sickness, present or pos-
sible. You must either be crooked and unsightly or you must be straight, and if
you are straight your breathing will take care of itself. You will find the matter
of health exercises referred to again in a future chapter.
It is essential, however, that you should breathe AIR. It appears to be the
intention of nature that the lungs should receive air containing its regular per-
centage of oxygen and not greatly contaminated by other gases, or by filth of
any kind.
Do not allow yourself to think that you are compelled to live or work where
the air is not fit to breathe. If your house cannot be properly ventilated, move.
And if you are employed where the air is bad, get another job — you can, by
practicing the methods given in the preceding volume of this series, The Science
of Getting Rich.
If no one would consent to work in bad air, employers would speedily see to
it that all work rooms were properly ventilated. The worst air is that filled with
poisonous chemical gases.* Next to that is air heavily charged with mold, as-

*This includes tobacco smoke and most other smoke; fumes from paint, plastic, gasoline and other
petroleum products, solvents, glues, carpets and furniture made from artificial substances, and
even household cleaners.

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bestos, or factory dust particles. After that is air from which the oxygen has
been exhausted by breathing — as that of airplanes, churches and theaters where
crowds of people congregate, and the outlet and supply of air are poor.
Then there is air containing other natural gases than oxygen and hydrogen
— sewer gas and the effiuvium from decaying things. Air that contains house-
hold dust or pollen may be endured better than any of these. Small particles of
organic matter other than food are more easily thrown off from the lungs than
gases, which go into the blood.
I speak advisedly when I say “other than food.” Air is largely a food. It is the
most thoroughly alive thing we take into the body. Every breath carries life.
The odors from earth, grass, tree, flower, plant, and from cooking foods are
foods in themselves. They are minute particles of the substances from which
they come, and are often so attenuated that they pass directly from the lungs
into the blood, and are assimilated without digestion. And the atmosphere is
permeated with the One Original Substance, which is life itself.
Consciously recognize this whenever you think of your breathing, and think
that you are breathing in life. You really are, and conscious recognition helps
the process. See to it that you do not breathe air containing poisonous gases, and
that you do not rebreathe the air which has been used by yourself or others.
That is all there is to the matter of breathing correctly. Keep your spine straight
and your chest flexible, and breathe pure air, recognizing with thankfulness
the fact that you breathe in the Eternal Life. That is not difficult, and beyond
these things give little thought to your breathing except to thank God that you
have learned how to do it perfectly.

Editor’s Note
On breating pure air
Most of us today are familiar with the health risks of exposure to cigarette and
other tobacco smoke, both to the smokers and to those around them. Most
have heard stories of those with lung disease who have trouble in polluted air.
And most of us will take action to avoid foul-smelling air or air that causes us
immediate ill effects.
However, in my experience, most people are entirely ignorant of, or extremely
careless about, their own protection from polluted air that appears to cause no
immediate ill effect but can lead to great disability.
When is the last time you saw someone wear a respirator mask when paint-
ing the bathroom or applying pesticides in the garden? We live in an environ-
ment filled with tens of thousands of highly toxic chemicals that have never
been tested for their health effects. Modern buildings with recirculated air may
also contain toxic mold resulting from hidden water damage.
What should you do with this information?

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 This, and more, is all true, but to focus our attention on it is exactly what Mr.
Wattles warns us NOT to do. How can you take intelligent action without be-
coming fearfully vigilant?
The simplest approach is to focus your attention on breathing clean, fresh
air. Arrange your life so you have maximum fresh air at all times. Choose ways
of doing everything that avoid polluting or recirculating the air you breathe at
home, at work, in your car, and outdoors. If you MUST come into contact with
chemicals or airborne particles, wear a proper mask so you don’t breathe in
any of the poisonous stuff.
In situations in which you cannot be physically protected from an exposure,
you must use mental action. Do not spend a moment thinking about how toxic
those bus fumes are or how your health is being harmed by that person smok-
ing a cigarette. Think instead, Ah! Fresh air is just around the corner — and
then, as soon as you can, go to where the air is clean.
If you are in a situation in which the air seems less than pure, and you cannot
immediately leave, focus your attention on all the pure molecules of air amongst
the others. If the air is able to sustain life, that means there is plenty of good air
for you to breathe, and you must think only of the good air entering your lungs.

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Chapter 15

Sleep
ital power is renewed in sleep. Every living thing sleeps. Humans, ani-

.V
.... mals, reptiles, fish, and insects sleep, and even plants have regular peri-
ods of slumber. And this is because it is in sleep that we come into such
contact with the Principle of Life in nature that our own lives may be renewed.
It is in sleep that our brains are recharged with vital energy and the Principle of
Health within us is given new strength. It is of the first importance, then, that
we should sleep in a natural, normal, and perfectly healthy manner.
Studying sleep, we note that the breathing is much deeper and more forcible
and rhythmic than in the waking state. Much more air is inspired when asleep
than when awake, and this tells us that the Principle of Health requires large
quantities of some element in the atmosphere for the process of renewal.
If you would surround sleep with natural conditions, then, the first step is to
see that you have an unlimited supply of fresh and pure air to breathe. Physi-
cians have found that sleeping in the pure air of out-of-doors is very effective
in the treatment of pulmonary troubles, and, taken in connection with the Way
of Living and Thinking prescribed in this book, you will find that it is just as
effective in curing every other sort of trouble.
Do not take any half-way measures in this matter of securing pure air while
you sleep. Ventilate your bedroom thoroughly — so thoroughly that it will be
practically the same as sleeping out of doors. Have a door or window open
wide; have one open on each side of the room, if possible. If you cannot have a
good draught of air across the room, pull the head of your bed close to the
open window, so that the air from without may come fully into your face. No
matter how cold or unpleasant the weather, have a window open, and open
wide, and try to get a circulation of pure air through the room. Pile on the
bedclothes, if necessary, to keep you warm, but have an unlimited supply of
fresh air from out of doors. This is the first great requisite for healthy sleep.
The brain and nerve centers cannot be thoroughly vitalized if you sleep in
“dead” or stagnant air. You must have the living atmosphere, vital with nature’s
Principle of Life. I repeat, do not make any compromise in this matter. Venti-
late your sleeping room completely, and see that there is a circulation of out-
door air through it while you sleep. You are not sleeping in a perfectly healthy
way if you shut the doors and windows of your sleeping room, whether in
winter or summer.

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 Have fresh air. If you are where there is no fresh air, move. If your bedroom
cannot be ventilated, get into another house.
Next in importance is the mental attitude in which you go to sleep. It is well
to sleep intelligently, purposefully, knowing what you do it for. Lie down think-
ing that sleep is an infallible vitalizer, and go to sleep with a confident faith
that your strength is to be renewed, that you will awake full of vitality and
health. Put purpose into your sleep as you do into your eating. Give the matter
your attention for a few minutes, as you go to rest.
Do not seek your couch with a discouraged or depressed feeling; go there
joyously, to be made whole. Do not forget the exercise of gratitude in going to
sleep. Before you close your eyes, give thanks to God for having shown you the
way to perfect health, and go to sleep with this grateful thought uppermost in
your mind.
A bedtime prayer of thanksgiving is a mighty good thing. It puts the Prin-
ciple of Health within you into communication with its source, from which it is
to receive new power while you are in the silence of unconsciousness.
You may see that the requirements for perfectly healthy sleep are not diffi-
cult. First, to see that you breathe pure air from out of doors while you sleep,
and, second, to put the Within into touch with the Living Substance by a few
minutes of grateful meditation as you go to bed. Observe these requirements,
go to sleep in a thankful and confident frame of mind, and all will be well.
If you have insomnia, do not let it worry you. While you lie awake, form
your conception of health. Meditate with thankfulness on the abundant life
which is yours. Breathe, and feel perfectly confident that you will sleep in due
time — and you will. Insomnia, like every other ailment, must give way before
the Principle of Health aroused to full constructive activity by the course of
thought and action herein described.
The reader will now comprehend that it is not at all burdensome or dis-
agreeable to perform the voluntary functions of life in a perfectly healthy way.
The perfectly healthy way is the easiest, simplest, most natural, and most pleas-
ant way. The cultivation of health is not a work of art, difficulty, or strenuous
labor. You have only to lay aside artificial observances of every kind and eat,
drink, breathe, and sleep in the most natural and delightful way, and if you do
this, thinking health and only health, you will certainly be well.

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Chapter 16

Supplementary Instructions
n forming a conception of health, it is necessary to think of the manner in
I.. which you would live and work if you were perfectly well and very strong
— to imagine yourself doing things in the way of a perfectly well and very
strong person, until you have a fairly good conception of what you would be if
you were well.
Then take a mental and physical attitude in harmony with this conception,
and do not depart from this attitude. You must unify yourself in thought with
the thing you desire, and whatever state or condition you unify with yourself
in thought will soon become unified with you in body. The scientific way is to
sever relations with everything you do not want, and to enter into relations
with everything you do want. Form a conception of perfect health, and relate
yourself to this conception in word, act, and attitude.
Guard your speech. Make every word harmonize with the conception of
perfect health. Never complain. Never say things like these: “I did not sleep
well last night,” “I have a pain in my side,” “I do not feel at all well today,” and
so on. Say: “I am looking forward to a good night’s sleep tonight,” “I can see
that I progress rapidly,” and things of similar meaning. As far as everything
which is connected with disease is concerned, your way is to forget it; and as
far as everything which is connected with health is concerned, your way is to
unify yourself with it in thought and speech.
This is the whole thing in a nutshell: make yourself one with Health in thought,
word, and action, and do not connect yourself with sickness either by thought, word, or
action.
Do not read “doctor books” or medical literature, or the literature of those
whose theories conflict with those herein set forth. To do so will certainly un-
dermine your faith in the Way of Living upon which you have entered and
cause you to again come into mental relations with disease. This book really
gives you all that is required — nothing essential has been omitted, and practi-
cally all the superfluous has been eliminated.
The Science of Being Well is an exact science, like arithmetic. Nothing can be
added to the fundamental principles, and if anything be taken from them, a
failure will result. If you follow strictly the way of living prescribed in this
book, you will be well. And you certainly CAN follow this way, both in thought
and action.

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 Relate not only yourself, but so far as possible all others, in your thoughts, to
perfect health. Do not sympathize with people when they complain, or even
when they are sick and suffering. Turn their thoughts into a constructive chan-
nel if you can. Do all you can for their relief, but do it with the health thought in
your mind.
Do not let people tell their woes and catalogue their symptoms to you. Turn
the conversation to some other subject, or excuse yourself and go. Better be
considered an unfeeling person than to have the disease thought forced upon
you.
When you are in company of people whose conversational stock-in-trade is
sickness and kindred matters, ignore what they say and fall to offering a men-
tal prayer of gratitude for your perfect health. And if that does not enable you
to shut out their thoughts, say good-by and leave them.
No matter what they think or say, politeness does not require you to permit
yourself to be poisoned by diseased or perverted thought. When we have a
few more hundreds of thousands of enlightened thinkers who will not stay
where people complain and talk sickness, the world will advance rapidly to-
ward health. When you let people talk to you of sickness, you assist them to increase
and multiply sickness.
What shall I do when I am in pain? Can one be in actual physical suffering
and still think only thoughts of health?
Yes. Do not resist pain; recognize that it is a good thing. Pain is caused by an
effort of the Principle of Health to overcome some unnatural condition. This
you must know and feel.
When you have a pain, think that a process of healing is going on in the af-
fected part, and mentally assist and cooperate with it. Put yourself in full men-
tal harmony with the power which is causing the pain — assist it, help it along.
Do not hesitate, when necessary, to use hot fomentations and similar means to
further the good work which is going on. If the pain is severe, lie down and
give your mind to the work of quietly and easily cooperating with the force
which is at work for your good.
This is the time to exercise gratitude and faith. Be thankful for the power of
health which is causing the pain, and be certain that the pain will cease as soon
as the good work is done. Fix your thoughts, with confidence, on the Principle
of Health which is making such conditions within you that pain will soon be
unnecessary. You will be surprised to find how easily you can conquer pain,
and after you have lived for a time in this Scientific Way, pains and aches will
be things unknown to you.
What shall I do when I am too weak for my work? Shall I drive myself be-
yond my strength, trusting in God to support me? Shall I go on, like the
runner, expecting a “second wind?”

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No; better not. When you begin to live in this Way, you will probably not be of
normal strength, and you will gradually pass from a low physical condition to
a higher one. If you relate yourself mentally with health and strength, and
perform the voluntary functions of life in a perfectly healthy manner, your
strength will increase from day to day, but for a time you may have days when
your strength is insufficient for the work you would like to do.
At such times rest, and exercise gratitude. Recognize the fact that your
strength is growing rapidly, and feel a deep thankfulness to the Living One
from whom it comes. Spend an hour of weakness in thanksgiving and rest,
with full faith that great strength is at hand, and then get up and go on again.
While you rest do not think of your present weakness; think of the strength that
is coming.
Never, at any time, allow yourself to think that you are giving way to weak-
ness. When you rest, as when you go to sleep, fix your mind on the Principle of
Health which is building you into complete strength.
What shall I do about that great bugaboo which scares millions of people to
death every year — constipation?
Do not worry. Read Horace Fletcher on The A.B.- Z. of Our Own Nutrition, and
get the full force of his explanation of the fact that when you live on this scien-
tific plan there will be much less matter to eliminate.* The material from the
plant foods you are naturally guided to eat will take care of the matter. The
gross feeders who eat from three to ten times as much fat, meat, and starch as
can be utilized in their systems have a great amount of waste to eliminate and
not the plant materials to assist, but if you live in the manner we have de-
scribed it will be otherwise with you.
If you eat only when you have an EARNED HUNGER, and chew every
mouthful to a liquid, and if you stop eating the instant you BEGIN to be con-
scious of an abatement of your hunger, you will so perfectly prepare your food
for digestion and assimilation that practically all of it will be taken up by the
absorbents, and there will be little remaining in the bowels to be excreted. If
you are able to entirely banish from your memory all that you have read in
“doctor books” and patent medicine advertisements concerning constipation,
you need give the matter no further thought at all. The Principle of Health will
take care of it.
But if your mind has been filled with fear-thought in regard to constipation,
it may be well in the beginning for you to occasionally flush the colon with
warm water. There is not the least need of doing it, except to make the process
of your mental emancipation from fear a little easier; it may be worth while for
that. And as soon as you see that you are making good progress, and that you
have cut down your quantity of food, and are really eating in the Scientific
*Relevant information from Fletcher’s book is included in Historical Notes on When, What, and How to
Eat at the end of this book.

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Way, dismiss constipation from your mind forever; you have nothing more to
do with it. Put your trust in that Principle within you which has the power to
give you perfect health. Relate to It by your reverent gratitude to the Principle
of Life which is All Power, and go on your way rejoicing.
What about exercise?
Everyone is the better for a little all-round use of the muscles every day, and
the best way to get this is to do it by engaging in some form of play or amuse-
ment. Get your exercise in the natural way — as recreation, not as a forced
stunt for health’s sake alone. Ride a horse or a bicycle, play tennis or tenpins, or
toss a ball. Have some avocation like gardening in which you can spend an
hour every day with pleasure and profit. There are a thousand ways in which
you can get exercise enough to keep your body supple and your circulation
good, and yet not fall into the rut of “exercising for your health.” Exercise for
fun or profit. Exercise because you are too healthy to sit still, and not because
you wish to become healthy, or to remain so.
Are long continued fasts necessary?
Seldom, if ever. The Principle of Health does not often require 20, 30, or 40
days to get ready for action. Under normal conditions, hunger will come in
much less time. In most long fasts, the reason hunger does not come sooner is
because it has been inhibited by the patient himself. He begins the fast with the
FEAR if not actually with the hope that it will be many days before hunger
comes. The literature he has read on the subject has prepared him to expect a
long fast, and he is grimly determined to go to a finish, let the time be as long as
it will. And the sub-conscious mind, under the influence of powerful and posi-
tive suggestion, suspends hunger.
When, for any reason, nature takes away your hunger, go cheerfully on with
your usual work, and do not eat until she gives it back. No matter if it is two,
three, ten days, or longer, you may be perfectly sure that when it is time for
you to eat you will be hungry. And if you are cheerfully confident and keep
your faith in health, you will suffer from no weakness or discomfort caused by
abstinence.
When you are not hungry, you will feel stronger, happier, and more com-
fortable if you do not eat than you will if you do eat, no matter how long the
fast. And if you live in the scientific way described in this book, you will never
have to take long fasts, you will seldom miss a meal, and you will enjoy your
meals more than ever before in your life. Get an earned hunger before you eat,
and whenever you get an earned hunger, eat.

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Chapter 17

A Summary of the Science of Being Well

ealth is perfectly natural functioning, normal living. There is a Principle

.H
.... of Life in the universe; it is the Living Substance, from which all things
are made. This Living Substance permeates, penetrates, and fills the in-
terspaces of the universe. In its invisible state it is in and through all forms, and
yet all forms are made of it.
To illustrate: Suppose that a very fine and highly diffusible aqueous vapor
should permeate and penetrate a block of ice. The ice is formed from living
water and is living water in form, while the vapor is also living water, un-
formed, permeating a form made from itself. This illustration will explain how
Living Substance permeates all forms made from It. All life comes from It. It is
all the life there is.
This Universal Substance is a thinking substance, and takes the form of its
thought. The thought of a form, held by it, creates the form; and the thought of
a motion causes the motion. It cannot help thinking, and so is forever creating.
And it must move on toward fuller and more complete expression of itself.
This means toward more complete life and more perfect functioning — and
that means toward perfect health.
The power of the living substance must always be exerted toward perfect
health. It is a force in all things making for perfect functioning.
All things are permeated by a power which makes for health.
A human being can relate himself to this power, and ally himself with it. He can
also separate himself from it in his thoughts.
A human being is a form of this Living Substance, and has within him a Principle of
Health. This Principle of Health, when in full constructive activity, causes all
the involuntary functions of the human body to be perfectly performed.
A human being is a thinking substance, permeating a visible body, and the processes
of his body are controlled by his thought.
When a person thinks only thoughts of perfect health, the internal processes
of his body will be those of perfect health. A person’s first step toward perfect
health must be to form a conception of himself as perfectly healthy and as
doing all things in the way and manner of a perfectly healthy person. Having
formed this conception, he must relate himself to it in all his thoughts, and
sever all thought relations with disease and weakness.

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 If he does this, and thinks his thoughts of health with positive FAITH, a
person will cause the Principle of Health within him to become constructively
active, and to heal all his diseases. He can receive additional power from the
universal Principle of Life by faith, and he can acquire faith by looking to this
Principle of Life with reverent gratitude for the health it gives him. If a person
will consciously accept the health which is being continually given to him by
the Living Substance, and if he will be duly grateful for it, he will develop faith.
A person cannot think only thoughts of perfect health unless he performs
the voluntary functions of life in a perfectly healthy manner. These voluntary
functions are eating, drinking, breathing, and sleeping. If a person thinks only
thoughts of health, has faith in health, and eats, drinks, breathes, and sleeps in
a perfectly healthy way, he must have perfect health.
Health is the result of thinking and acting in a Certain Way, and if a sick
person begins to think and act in this Way, the Principle of Health within him
will come into constructive activity and heal all his diseases. This PrincipIe of
Heath is the same in all, and is related to the Life Principle of the universe. It is
able to heal every disease, and will come into activity whenever a person thinks
and acts in accordance with the Science of Being Well. Therefore, every person
can attain perfect health.

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Chapter 18

Historical Notes on When, What, and How to Eat

You may find it easier to understand and practice what you’ve learned

.Y
.... in The Science of Being Well if you know something of the historical con-
text in which Mr. Wattles wrote it.

When should you eat?

First, why did Mr. Wattles believe that “even if you are in a condition of appar-
ent starvation or great emaciation, if there is no hunger you may know that FOOD
CANNOT BE USED, and it will be unnatural and wrong for you to eat?”
As mentioned in my notes at the end of Chapter 9, Mr. Wattles clearly drew
many of his ideas about the effectiveness of medicine and eating habits from the
works of Edward Hooker Dewey, M.D. In his preface he mentions Dewey’s book,
The No-Breakfast Plan and the Fasting Cure, published in 1900. This book is a fas-
cinating autobiographical account of the experimentation and conclusions of a
medical doctor who practiced for more than 40 years, beginning with treating
soldiers in the American Civil War, and then continuing with family practice.
Common medical practice of the day included feeding an ill person toxic
medicines such as mercury as well as vast quantities of milk and strong alco-
hol. It was also generally believed that food would give a person strength to
heal, so people were forced to eat regardless of hunger, appetite, and even if
they were vomiting.
Dr. Dewey’s observations include the following, with my “translations”
shown in parentheses:
In all cases of acute sickness there was always a wasting of the
body no matter how much they were fed; a like increase of general
strength when a normal desire for food occurred no matter how little
they were fed.
I could recall a great many cases in which because of intense aver-
sion to food patients had been sick for many days, and even weeks,
with not enough nourishment taken to account for the support of
vital power ... The body, of course, would waste during the time of
sickness; but so did the bodies of the sick that were fed. As for medi-
cines, they were utterly ignored except where pain was to be relieved
(with morphine), though unmedicated doses (placebos) were alike a

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 necessity with all. Not a single medicine was given except for pain,
and occasionally in cases in which I had reason to think the entire
digestive tract needed a general clearing of foul sewage. (Laxatives
were given.) Thence on, that supreme work, the cure of disease, in
my hands became the work of Nature only.
In general practice I was able to carry out the non-feeding plan by
permitting the various meat teas or the cereal broths, none of which
can be taken by the severely sick in quantities to do harm. By with-
holding milk I was enabled to secure all the fasting Nature required,
while satisfying the ever-anxious friends with tea and broth diversions.
I had no fatalities that were apparently in any way due to the en-
forced lack of food. In cases of chronic disease in which death was in-
evitable, such as cancer, consumption (tuberculosis), etc., patients were
permitted to take what they could with the least offence to the sense of
relish (enjoyable flavor). In every case of recovery there was a history
of increasing general strength as the disease declined, of an actual in-
crease of vital power without the support of food that had no more
relish than the dose (medicine) that crucified the nerves of taste.
Dr. Dewey goes on to describe the intense criticism he received from the
medical community for his practice of fasting all his patients. The cure rate of
his patients was apparently significantly higher than that experienced by the
patients of his more traditional colleagues. He includes descriptions of those
who took fasting into their own hands and cured themselves of chronic, but
less disabling diseases. They were able to continue to work at their jobs while
consuming only fluids.
He then experimented with avoiding breakfast to solve chronic digestive
ailments, and met with such great success that he recommended the practice of
beginning the day without food. Thus, he is credited with the “no-breakfast
plan.”
Dr. Dewey discovered that in cases of infectious disease with no appetite,
fasting was effective. This recommendation is still useful for illnesses which
will certainly heal without medical intervention, such as the common cold and
intestinal flu in a reasonably strong person. In a person already weakened by
malnutrition before the onset of the infection, or in those whose immune sys-
tem is severely compromised, as in AIDS, fasting is not recommended. In any
case, fasting for more than a few days should be supervised by a doctor who is
an expert in therapeutic fasting, but who will also enthusiastically assist you in
following the principles of the Science of Being Well.
What should you eat?
Chapter 10, “What to Eat,” has been rewritten with the following historical
information in mind.

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 In Mr. Wattles’ time, food was commonly believed to be the source of uni-
form units of raw material for replacing cells destroyed in the process of work. It
was not generally accepted that a variety of raw materials was required or that
a variety of types of food was required in order to provide them. Further, there
was no recognition that the specific nutritional needs of a growing child or of a
woman who was pregnant or nursing her baby might be different. By this logic,
any food, if properly chewed, could release sufficient raw materials to replace
the cells in any person. It would not matter what food a person ate, so long as
he extracted its nourishment by chewing.
It had been observed before 1910 that eating limes would prevent and cure
scurvy, a common disease among sailors, but it was not understood why this
was true. High value foods were generally regarded to be those that “stuck to
the ribs,” meaning a person felt full long after eating. (This is true of foods such
as fatty meat.) Sugar was also valued, as it was tasty and expensive. Those who
touted the value of vegetables were regarded as “faddists.” The concept that
certain foods contained specific nutrients needed for health was either unknown
or ridiculed.
Meat, fat, bread and sugar were the main parts of a common western diet,
except on farms where fresh milk, vegetables and fruits were available. Over-
eating was a significant cause of chronic illness, especially among the wealthy.
(In America today, it is one of the most prevalent causes of ill health and death
across most social classes.) Infectious disease, particularly tuberculosis, was
rampant, and did not spare the “well-fed.” Today we understand that poor
nutrition — either too little of the right thing or too much of the wrong thing — is
the primary cause in weakening the body so that it becomes susceptible to both
infection and chronic disease.
Mr. Wattles apparently reasoned that because all foods were equal in their
ability to deliver the raw materials needed by the body, it did not really matter
what a person ate. (He was, however, influenced by thinkers who believed
that if overeating was avoided, the person would naturally want to eat what
the body needed.) What mattered was the attitude of faith and enjoyment in
eating, along with adequate chewing.
In the nearly 100 years following the publication of The Science of Being Well,
an enormous amount has been learned about the function of the human body
and the role of nutrition in health and disease. No body of work I have encoun-
tered is as impressive as the work of Dr. Weston Price, published in medical
journals throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and compiled in 1939 as a book, Nu-
trition and Physical Degeneration.
Dr. Price was a dentist who sought to understand what caused the extremely
high incidence of tooth decay among Americans, and what could be done about
it. He found that among the American communities he studied, 25 to 75 per-
cent of people had decayed teeth. His method was to find and investigate the

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diet and lifestyle of people whose teeth were without decay. He wisely chose to
study, as Mr. Wattles advises, health rather than sickness.
Dr. Price’s quest led him to travel more than 100,000 miles all over the world
to study healthy groups of people. These included isolated villages in Switzer-
land, Gaelic communities in the Outer Hebrides, communities of Inuits and other
Native Canadians and Native Americans, Melanesian and Polynesian South Sea
Islanders, Native Africans, Australian Aborigines, New Zealand Maori, and
Native Peruvians. He compared those living and eating according to ancestral
tradition with those eating the “white man’s” food and living on reservations,
in missions, in neighboring cities, or in ports of trade. Where possible, he also
studied the Caucasian people in communities alongside the “natives.”
His collection included meticulous measurements, 20,000 photographs, labo-
ratory samples of food and saliva, and interviews with the people he studied
and the doctors who served them. He then tested his theories on his patients in
the U.S. and found them to be correct.
What did Dr. Price find?
1. The incidence of dental decay — or its absence — matched the overall
health of an individual.
2. In traditional communities that had access to Western doctors (who were
able to verify this information), incidence of cancer, arthritis, rheumatism,
scurvy, rickets, and other common diseases of the time was nonexistent. Nearby
Caucasians had a significant incidence of all these problems.
3. Several of the traditional groups were particularly noted for their remark-
able eyesight. They were able to see stars thought to be visible only through
telescopes. Australian Aborigines were especially noted for their excellent vi-
sion, able to see not only faint stars but to describe the movement of an animal
more than a mile away that was not visible to the white person at all.
4. Most groups were noted for their magnificent singing voices and ability
to memorize and sing very complex music.
5. Traditional people were magnificent in stature (both men and women in
some groups were between 6 and 7 1/2 feet tall), with enormous strength and
endurance. They were able to walk tremendous distances in mountainous re-
gions carrying 200 and 300 pound loads, even at advanced ages, travel by sail
and human power thousands of miles, launch and maneuver small boats in ex-
tremely rough seas. Central to their lives was a great deal of physical activity,
both in procuring food and in community celebrations.
6. Skills in medicine, surgery, engineering, music, and survival in extreme
climates left no doubt as to their intellectual capabilities. These skills in many
cases surpassed the skills of “modern man.”
7. The details of traditional diets were often carefully guarded, as they were
in some cases regarded to be as important to the survival of the group as the

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secrets of modern military defense. Only after much discussion was informa-
tion given.
8. The “white man’s” diet was made up of foods that could be shipped long
distances and stored without refrigeration. It included refined wheat flour, re-
fined sugar, polished rice, preserved jams and jellies, canned foods, and veg-
etable fats.
9. Communities following traditional diets and lifestyles had an incidence
of tooth decay ranging from zero to less than one percent of the teeth affected
by decay. Tooth brushing was not practiced.
10. Individuals who left the traditional community for a year or two and
lived in “white” society had tooth decay during the time they were away. The
decay stopped when they returned to their previous lifestyles.
11. Compared with a Swiss community of exceptional health, a nearby com-
munity famous for its spas and dental hygiene but eating “modern” foods had
a high rate of dental decay. In other words, tooth brushing did not significantly
impact the incidence of dental decay.
12. Traditional communities had zero tuberculosis. Other communities had
major problems with this disease, which was the most common cause of death
worldwide. When people replaced their traditional diet with the “white man’s”
diet, infectious disease was epidemic. Nearly 100 percent of those with tuber-
culosis also had significant tooth decay.
13. If a child’s parents had replaced their traditional diet with “white man’s”
food prior to conceiving the child, that child invariably developed a significant
change in the bony structure of the skull. The sinuses would be improperly
formed, so that the child had lifelong difficulty breathing properly. The upper
and lower jaws would be narrowed or malformed, so that the teeth did not
have adequate space. They would then grow in crooked, crowded, and out of
place. The child would also have a narrower bone structure throughout the
body. For girls, this narrowing of the hips resulted in great difficulties in child-
birth.
14. Overall birth rates declined after a group adopted the “modern” diet.
15. Infectious disease and death rates skyrocketed after a group adopted the
“modern”diet.
16. Incidence of dental decay and chronic disease was extremely high among
those eating the “modern” diet, regardless of race. Caucasians in Australia and
New Zealand, for example, were found to have the highest rate of tooth decay
among all groups studied.
17. Among groups following traditional diets and lifestyles, crime was un-
known. Delinquent behavior was unknown. The overall happiness, harmony,
and generous spirits of these people noted by previous explorers was confirmed
by Dr. Price. Mental illness was not found. Only after groups had adopted the
“modern” diet and developed significant tooth decay did suicide develop. This

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was due to excruciating pain, as many groups exposed to “modern” diets de-
veloped problems before the accompanying “modern” clinics were built to take
care of the “modern” problems. They had no dentists. After adopting “mod-
ern” diets, people were also observed to become “quarrelsome.”
18. Analysis of deliquents and criminals in America showed they had the
same abnormal bone structure found in the children of those who adopted the
“modern” diet. (More recent studies have also shown patterns of nutrient defi-
ciencies and imbalances among those in prison.)
19. Dr. Price analyzed the foods eaten by the traditional groups. He com-
pared what he found to American nutritional standards. He found that tradi-
tional diets provided four to six times the water soluble vitamins (vitamins B
and C,) calcium and other minerals, and ten times the fat soluble vitamins (vi-
tamins A, D, and E) from animal foods such as butter, fish, eggs, shellfish and
organ meats. The “modern” or “white man’s” diet provided less than half the
requirements of American nutritional standards.
(The diet eaten by most people in modern times also falls short of recom-
mended minimal nutritional standards.)
20. When Dr. Price supplemented the diets of his patients with foods similar
to those eaten by groups in comparable climates, he observed dramatic health
improvements by all measures.
From all his observations, Dr. Price concluded that nutrition was the corner-
stone of physical and mental health, and that it could override even heredity.
Reading his words today, I suspect that there were other aspects of community
life that were also important in creating the result of perfect health. For when
the people he studied changed their eating habits, they also changed much of
the rest of their way of life.
In traditional groups, community life revolved around hunting, fishing, gath-
ering, growing, preparing and eating food. This involved everyone in the group
working together as a community and in intimate interaction with the abun-
dant natural world that was the source of their sustenance. The more a group
adopted the “modern diet,” the less involved they were in traditional interac-
tions in community and with the natural world. The implications of this change
are profound, and will be addressed in future publications. (Keep reading my
newsletter, Be Well!)
The Science of Being Well is unique in prescribing a much broader foundation
for health than just nutrition. It recommends a life of gratitude, peace, mind-
fulness, personal responsibility, intimate relationship with one’s spiritual AND
physical source of life and health, and positive relationship with oneself and
other people. Mr. Wattles understood, as you now can, that being well involves
thinking AND acting in this Certain Way.
If I eat the right food, do I still have to chew it to liquid?
Yes, if perfect health is your goal.

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 Mr. Wattles refers in this matter to the work of Horace Fletcher, explained in
The A.B.-Z.of Our Own Nutrition. In his introduction, Mr. Fletcher explains the
purpose of this book:
The author has, in collaboration with several others, found a way
how not to eat too much while eating all that the appetite desires, and in a
way that leads to a maximum of good taste and at a minimum of cost and
waste ...
He then introduces the experiments conducted at Yale University for the
purpose of testing his theory on “many persons of different physiques and
varying temperaments” and also to test other “methods of attainment of
economy, and to learn what is best for general application.”
Mr. Fletcher’s own story is this, in his own words:
About ten years ago, at the critical age of 44, the author was fast
becoming a physical wreck in the midst of a business, club, and social
tempest. Although he was trained as an athlete in his youth and had
lived an active and most agreeable life, he had contracted a degree of
physical disorder that made him ineligible as an insurance risk. This
unexpected disability, with such unmistakable warning, was so much
of a shock to his hopes of a long life that it led to his making a strong
personal effort to save himself. The study was taken up in systematic
manner, account of which is too long to relate here. But the eager
auto-reformer soon learned that his troubles came from too much of
many things, among them too much food and too much worry.
Realising the danger ahead, he sought a way to cure himself of his
disabilities by the help of an economic food supply. What is even
more important, he found a way to enjoy the smaller quantity of food
much more than any plethoric luxury can give, and arrived at a means
of conserving a healthy economy and an increased pleasure of eating,
at the same time, in quite a simple and scientific manner, that any one
may learn and practise without any ascetic deprivation whatever.
A further important note to the study of the Science of Being Well regards
the importance of caring for the body in such a way that it does not distract
from or interfere with one’s mental focus, but instead creates the inner peace
and vitality that make mental focus easy. Referring to his earlier book, Menti-
culture, Mr. Fletcher notes:
Pursuit of menticulture led further to the discovery that the best re-
sults could not be accomplished in a body weakened by any indiges-
tion, any mal-assimilation of nutriment or any excess of the waste of
indigestion.

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 If you have ever experienced irresistible sleepiness after a meal, or pain, bloat-
ing or irritablity, you are familiar with the difficulties of mental focus in such
states. The Science of Being Well wisely guides you in performing the mental
actions to support proper physical actions and the physical actions to support
proper mental actions.
The bulk of Mr. Fletcher’s book, The A.B.-Z. of Our Own Nutrition, is a de-
tailed description of scientific research on the role of chewing in digestion. The
following results of this research are directly relevant to The Science of Being
Well:
1. The production of digestive juices in the stomach begins with the anticipa-
tion of eating even more than with the actual contact with food in the stomach.
In other words, the eager anticipation of food is critical to proper digestion.
2. Eating foods which do not appeal to the eater results in a drastic decrease
in both the quantity and strength of digestive juices compared with foods which
the eater desires.
3. Proper digestion requires chewing food thoroughly. This breaks the food
into small particles and mixes it with saliva. Saliva contains substances which
begin to digest the food in the mouth and prepare it for further digestion in the
stomach.
4. Psychological shock or upset stops the process of digestion.
5. Chewing food to liquid form dramatically reduces both the quantity of
food required by a person and the quantity of stool he produces.
From these few facts alone, you can understand the importance of the prin-
ciples of eating described by Mr. Wattles:
• You must not eat until you are truly hungry.
• Before eating, your attention must be on the anticipation of food so that
extra saliva is produced (“mouth-watering” anticipation).
• You must want to eat what you are about to eat.
• You must chew your food thoroughly.
• You must remain in a peaceful environment and state of mind from the
beginning to the end of the digestive process.
• You will be well-nourished on much less food than you ate when you
did not chew it, and you can expect your digestion to be much more
efficient.
Interesting, isn’t it, that science backs up what your grandmother might have
told you: Be grateful for your meal, slow down and chew your food, and think
peaceful and happy thoughts.
It’s good stuff!

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Afterword

Afterword
What kind of person would devote herself to getting this book to you?

.W
...... What part will I play in helping you to put it to use successfully? To
start, it may be helpful for you to know what it means to be a naturo-
pathic physician.
A naturopathic physician (N.D.), also called a naturopath, naturopathic doc-
tor, or, in Arizona, a naturopathic medical doctor (N.M.D.), practices a distinct
system of primary health care — an art, science, philosophy and practice of di-
agnosing, treating, and preventing disease. Naturopathic medicine’s techniques
include modern and traditional, scientific and empirical methods.
Principles of Healing
The following six principles of healing form the foundation for naturopathic
medical practice:
1. The healing power of Nature.
The body is more than the sum of its physical parts. It also has an in-
herent, intelligent life force continuous with the life force in all cre-
ation. The natural state of this life force is balance and harmony—
within the body, within the person, and with all of creation. The
natural healing process is ordered and intelligent. The physician’s
role is to assist the patient in working WITH the ordered and intelli-
gent efforts of the natural life force as it acts in the body and in the
person’s life.
2. Treat the whole person.
The current appearance and functioning of the physical body is the re-
sult of a larger life system in each person that includes nutrition, exer-
cise, and other factors including mental, emotional, genetic, spiritual,
environmental, and social aspects of life. When there is imbalance*
anywhere in the system, the body will sooner or later display illness.
To achieve the result of physical health, the physician must assist the
patient in addressing health in all these aspects of his or her life.

*My own view is that it’s not imbalance, but a blockage or constriction of the free flow of life force
that creates the conditions for disease.

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 3. Identify and treat the cause.
Disease symptoms are the natural result of the body’s attempt to heal
itself or adapt to an imbalance in the person’s life. (For example, a
fever is the body’s way of killing “germs,” and a runny nose is to
clear out “germs” or irritating particles. A body weakened by stress
or malnutrition will invite infection. A tumor may be the result of
unexpressed or unresolved emotions, desires, creative urges; or physi-
cal toxins that have not been released.)
Using symptoms as clues to underlying imbalance, the physician
searches for and aims treatment at the cause of the imbalance, so that
all obstacles to cure can be removed, and the body’s own inherent
intelligence, working with the intelligent life force in all of creation,
can do the healing.
4. Prevention is the best cure.
Rather than wait until disease demonstrates underlying imbalance, it
is best to live in balance. The physician’s role is to understand each
patient well enough to identify imbalance before it leads to disease,
and to teach the patient how to create the best possible circumstances
for health.
5. First, do no harm.
The physician’s responsibility is to guide the patient in choosing the
tools and techniques most likely to support the body’s life force, and
causing the least possibility of adverse effects.
6. Doctor as teacher
The original meaning of the Latin root for doctor was teacher. The phys-
ician’s primary role is to inspire, guide, and teach a patient how to be
well, and how to care for him or herself in the event of disease. Even
when he or she gives hands-on treatments, the doctor is not the healer,
but only serves to facilitate healing by the life force acting in the pa-
tient.
Techniques and tools
A naturopathic doctor is trained in a wide range of diagnostic techniques (such
as lab tests, x-rays, and physical exams) and in the use of many tools and treat-
ment techniques. From these she chooses the combination she believes will
best support the body’s own self-healing. The tools and techniques include:
• homeopathic medicine • counseling
• allopathic medicine • hydrotherapy
• nutritional medicine • exercise programs
• botanical medicine • stress management programs
• musculo-skeletal manipulation • electrical stimulation
• dietary programs • minor surgery

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 When she believes it to be in the patient’s best interest, she refers patients to
various specialists, including M.D.s, D.O.s (osteopaths,) acupuncturists, mas-
sage therapists, chiropractors, psychotherapists, and many other types of health
practitioners.
Training and licensing
In case you’re curious as to how the training and licensing of a naturopathic
doctor (N.D.) compares with that of a medical doctor (M.D.), here’s the scoop:
In the state of Washington, U.S.A., where in 2004 I am licensed as a primary
care physician (the same category as an M.D.), naturopathic doctors are re-
quired to graduate from an accredited four-year naturopathic medical school
and pass national and state licensing examinations. Study at accredited col-
leges includes western medical philosophy and medical sciences:
• anatomy • physiology • biochemistry
• pharmacology • pathology • histology
• embryology • genetics • microbiology
• endocrinology • immunology • gynecology
• obstetrics • dermatology • neurology
• oncology • cardiology
• proctology • urology
The program of study also includes naturopathic medical philosophy, Chi-
nese and/or Ayurvedic medical philosophy; all of the therapeutics listed above;
and supervised clinical practice. Annual continuing education is required.
This book has changed my practice of medicine
In publishing and promoting The Science of Being Well, my aim is to offer a
system which I believe will benefit you. I have thought long and hard about
what it means to be a physician practicing what Mr. Wattles teaches. Should I
abandon the practice of medicine altogether?
By oath and law, my role as a physician is to prevent, detect, diagnose, and
treat disease. This role requires me to focus my attention on disease. The prac-
tice of the Science of Being Well as Mr. Wattles teaches it requires one to “sever
all mental relations with disease and enter into relations with health.”
But however much I may help my patients build the strongest relationship
with health, there is still the question of what to do if disease is present. How
should I support a person who is committed to the path of healing, but has a
disease which is currently disabling or even life-threatening?
What I believe is that disease in a person’s body is a result of some blockage
or constriction of the free flow of life force in the human system. The blockage
may originate in a person’s thoughts or actions. It may originate in his or her
parents’ thoughts or actions, or those of other influential people. It may be on a
much larger scale, as in social, cultural, environmental, or other global condi-

www.scienceofbeingwell.net The Science of Being Well 81

tions. All of these are part of the human system. All of these can affect an
individual’s health.
I believe that disease creates a precious opportunity for healing — for learn-
ing the truth about the flow of life energy in the universe and how we are all
part of it.
Disease is not the enemy that our modern medical system has made it seem.
Disease is a messenger. True healing requires willingness to receive the mes-
sage and deal with it.
On a global scale, when we see epidemics and the effects of global environ-
mental pollution, healing may require global change. On a personal level, heal-
ing may require forgiveness, letting go of limiting beliefs about oneself and the
world, and accepting higher truths. It may require taking the natural action
that results from understanding higher truths — actions like changing one’s
job or living circumstances, and relationships with everyone and everything in
one’s life.
This is big stuff!
It is my intention to focus my energy, skills, and experience on helping people
to achieve true healing. This means shifting my attention from disease to the
message it carries. It means helping people to open up to and align with the
full, free flow of life energy.
There are lots of doctors who can help you sort out how to manage the symp-
toms of disease so you can still function while you are healing. There are fewer
who will look beyond the disease itself to help you heal the underlying condi-
tion. I’m in the latter group. For some people part of what I do to help them
create the best possible circumstances for healing may be managing disease.
But I will not support people in dealing with disease at the expense of healing.
My interpretation of “severing mental relations with disease” is to give no
power to any fear or belief that disease is the problem. Further, it means to give
no power to the fear or belief that there is disharmony or imbalance. What it
means is to understand that there is science at work, with understandable and
predictable rules. If you know what the rules are and how to work with them,
you can have any result you want, including perfect health.
The Science of Being Well gives you the basic rules. My contribution is to help
you understand how it all works as my own understanding grows so we can
all experience the blessing of true well-being.
What is my vision for you? Could it be yours, too?
Imagine with me ...
You wake up in the morning after a restful sleep, full of energy and enthusi-
asm for the day ahead.
(You say the affirmation Charles Fillmore wrote at the age of 93: “I fairly
sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm and spring forth with a mighty faith to do
the things that ought to be done by me!”)

www.scienceofbeingwell.net The Science of Being Well 82

 Your body feels WONDERFUL. You look in the mirror and love who and
what you see.
Your day unfolds gracefully, from one peaceful moment to the next — re-
gardless of how things may appear — from the moment you joyfully awaken
until the moment you lie peacefully to rest for the night. You hold a powerful
vision of the dreams that are yours to fulfill. You have all the clarity, support,
and resources you need to do today’s work with excellence, and the confidence
and faith that you’ll have all you need tomorrow and every day.
You live in constant gratitude for the marvelous opportunity to have a body
which allows you to interact with all the beauty and wonder of the physical
world. You are joyfully aware of your connection with all of creation with ev-
ery breath you take, every drink of water, every bite of food, every loving
thought, every word you say, every action. You thoroughly enjoy everything
required to bring food to your table — every interaction with people, the earth,
rain, sunshine, other living beings, and the food itself. You love the way your
body moves, and love to move for the sheer joy of it.
You live in perfect health.
Your life of gratitude, peace, mindfulness, personal responsibility, intimate
relationship with your spiritual and physical source of life and health, and
positive relationship with yourself and other people creates a ripple effect ben-
efiting all of humanity and all life on Earth.
And everyone on Earth lives as you do, in perfect health, perfect prosperity,
and perfect peace.
Will you join me in this vision?
Will you turn your back on doubts, fears, past failures, the appearance of hope-
less conditions, that little voice inside that always seems to tell you “it won’t
work” for you? Will you courageously take your next step, and then another,
toward your vision, regardless of appearances and negative thoughts?
You DO have what it takes. You CAN have what you want. And here’s the
best part: it can be EASY, and it can be FUN!
Are you ready for your life to be more wonderful than ever before? Are you
ready to experience not only physical health but an entire life of well-being?
Can you imagine participating in something that benefits not only you, but the
entire planet? It may be as simple as deciding to make it so.
Say “yes!” and the forces of the universe are already rushing to help you.
For starters, you already have this ebook! And I’m creating or tracking down
every other way I can think of to help and support you.
All you have to do is say yes ...
• Say yes to the ongoing support available through the Science of Being
Well website—www.scienceofbeingwell.net. Check the site often for
exciting new resources.

www.scienceofbeingwell.net The Science of Being Well 83

 • Read the free Be Well!™ ezine for regular infusions of inspiration, prac-
tical tips, and amazing stories of others’ successes.
• Build your faith in what’s possible by listening to the audiobook.
• Increase your support group of like-minded people in the worldwide
online discussion forum.
• Let your computer help you focus on health with my free Fresh Air™
software.
• Invite others to join you by printing out and giving this book to your
friends, referring them to www.scienceofbeingwell.net, and encourag-
ing them to jump in with you and take full advantage of the resources.
• Increase the number of like-minded people in your field by joining the
affiliate program and linking to the site on your own website.

My friend, you have my full faith and confidence that if you practice the
Science of Being Well, you will ...

Be Well!

www.scienceofbeingwell.net The Science of Being Well 84

Chapter

Glossary
erms and names which may be unfamiliar or are not commonly used

.T
... today are explained here, chapter by chapter. Two very important terms
used throughout this book and Mr. Wattles’ other writings are explained
at the end of this Glossary.

Preface
New Thought
New Thought is a practically oriented spirituality that promotes fullness
of all aspects of living, through constructive thinking, meditating, and other
ways of realizing the presence of God. It was recognized as “The Religion
of Healthy-Mindedness” by William James in his 1902 book, The Varieties
of Religious Experience. Because it affirms freedom of belief of each person,
there is a variety of theological positions among its practitioners. Current
New Thought churches and groups include Unity, Religious Science, Sci-
ence of Mind, Divine Science, and others.
As New Thought is a spiritual approach, not a religion, there are many
people who follow New Thought principles regardless of their particular
religious affiliations (or none at all).

Chapter 1
Allopath
An allopath is a doctor who uses strong substances to counteract the body’s
processes during disease. The emphasis is often on stopping symptoms.
Modern examples would be a medicine to reduce a fever, or dry up your
runny nose during a cold, or a drug so you don’t feel pain. During Mr.
Wattles’ time, injected morphine was the standard painkiller. A variety of
substances we now recognize as toxic, such as mercury and large doses of
strong alcohol, were common allopathic medicines back then.
Homeopath
A homeopath is a doctor who uses extremely dilute doses of substances
which, if taken in large dose, would cause the very same symptoms the
patient is having. The theory is that symptoms are the natural result of the

www.scienceofbeingwell.net The Science of Being Well 85

 body’s effort to heal itself, and that these dilute substances support, rather
than counteract, this effort to heal.
Osteopath
An osteopath is a doctor who uses musculoskeletal manipulation with the
goal of healing the whole body by restoring circulation and nerve impulses
to all body organs and systems.
Bills of fare
In Mr. Wattles’ day a “food scientist”would guide a person to health by
giving a list of specific foods to eat or avoid. This could be called a diet
plan, menu, or “bill of fare.”
Christian Scientist
A Christian Scientist follows a religion founded in 1866 by Mary Baker
Eddy, practicing spiritual healing based on the teaching that cause and
effect are mental, and that sin, sickness, and death are destroyed by a full
understanding of the divine principles of Jesus’ teaching and healing.
Mental scientist
A mental scientist believes that the mind is fully capable of healing the
body, or in limiting its healing, through belief, and that the mind can be
trained in positive belief through verbalizing positive statements called
“affirmations.”
Hygienist
Hygienists followed a health reform movement begun in the 1830’s by
Sylvester Graham. They urged a regimen of unrefined flour, daily exer-
cise, cold baths, hard mattresses, loose clothing, and abstinence (from drink-
ing alcohol, smoking, and masturbating), all tied to “Christian morality.”
As meat was viewed as a substance likely to stimulate immoral sexual
passions, the ideal diet was thought to be vegetarian.

Chapter 4
Dr. Tanner
In 1880, Dr. Tanner in New York City did a 40-day fast to prove such a
thing could be done. He drank only water, and had several attendants
caring for him so his need for physical exertion was minimal. The news-
papers ran daily accounts of his progress, and doctors took daily scientific
measurements which were then published in the well-respected British
Medical Journal.
After his success, many others demonstrated that even longer fasts could
be done with beneficial results, even while carrying on normal activities
of daily living. Several of these are described in detail in Dr. E. H. Dewey’s
book, The No-Breakfast Plan and The Fasting Cure.

www.scienceofbeingwell.net The Science of Being Well 86

Chapter 11
“Fletcher habit”
The practice of chewing one’s food to liquid, the “Fletcher habit,” was
named for Horace Fletcher, who promoted it. His research on the subject
is detailed in his book, The A.B.-Z. of Our Own Nutrition.

Chapter 16
Hot fomentations
A hot fomentation is a treatment using several thicknesses of wool or cot-
ton soaked in hot water, then placed over the painful area or other body
part in which increased heat is desired.
Because it increases circulation, it is not used over open wounds. Due to
the danger of burns, it is not used in body areas unable to detect heat, in
infants, or in persons who are unconscious or paralyzed. It is not usually
used over a menstruating or pregnant uterus, or an area with cancer.
This treatment is generally safe for sore muscles. For other uses, it is rec-
ommended that you consult a naturopathic doctor or someone else trained
in hydrotherapy. (In some areas, massage therapists are trained in hydro-
therapy.)
You can read more about this treatment for home use in Home Remedies,
by Agatha Thrash, M.D. and Calvin Thrash, M.D.

Throughout the Book

Purpose
Today we generally use this word as a noun meaning variously:
• The object toward which one strives (Example: a goal),
• The reason for which something exists (Example: the purpose of life)
• The reason for taking action (Example: our purpose is to get well).
But in Mr. Wattles’ day the word was often used as a verb. When one pur-
poses to do something, it means one completely intends to perform or ac-
complish that something. It describes total determination and commit-
ment.
I suggest that when you see this word used in The Science of Being Well,
The Science of Getting Rich, or The Science of Being Great, you consider all its
possible meanings. They all make sense!
The Certain Way
Mr. Wattles uses this phrase in all three of the books mentioned above,
and there are a couple of meanings, both of which apply. First he is refer-
ring to:
• A particular, specific way of thinking, acting, living, etc.

www.scienceofbeingwell.net The Science of Being Well 87

 And the word certain also means:
• Sure to come or happen; inevitable: certain success.
• Established beyond doubt or question; indisputable. (Example: What is
certain is that every effect must have a cause.
• Capable of being relied on; dependable: (Example: A quick and certain
remedy.)
• Having or showing confidence; assured.
Once again, all these meanings are useful.

www.scienceofbeingwell.net The Science of Being Well 88

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To keep yourself thinking in the certain way ...
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