I have made what seems to me a discovery.

I was very sick; I had all the ills of mind and body that I could bear. Medicine and doctors ceased to give me relief and I was in despair, until I found practical Christianity, I affirmed my beliefs, and I was healed. I did most of the healing myself, because I wanted the understanding for future use. This is how I made what I call my discovery:

I was thinking about life. Life is everywhere—in animals and in people. “Then why doesn't the life in the animal make a body like a human's?" I asked. Then I thought, the animal has not as much sense as a human. Ah! Intelligence, as well as life, is needed to make a body.

Here is the key to my discovery: Life has to be guided by intelligence in making all forms. The same law works in my own body. Life is simply a form of energy, and it has to be guided and directed in a person's body by his or her intelligence.

How do we communicate intelligence? By thinking and talking, of course. Then it flashed upon me that I might talk to the life in every part of my body and have it do just what I wanted. I began to teach my body and got marvelous results.

I Began to Teach My Body

I told the life in my liver that it was not torpid or inert, but full of vigor and energy. I told the life in my stomach that it was not weak or inefficient, but energetic, strong, and intelligent. I told the life in my abdomen that it was no longer infested with ignorant ideas of disease, put there by myself and by doctors, but that it was all alive with the sweet, pure, wholesome energy of God. I told my limbs that they were active and strong. I told my eyes that they did not see of themselves, but that they expressed the sight of Spirit and that they were drawing on an unlimited source. I told them that they were young eyes—clear, bright eyes, because the light of God shone through them. I told my heart that the pure love of Jesus Christ flowed in and through its beatings and that all the world felt its joyous pulsation.

I went to all the life centers in my body and spoke words of Truth to them—words of strength and power.

I asked their forgiveness for the foolish, ignorant course that I had pursued in the past, when I had condemned them and called them weak, inefficient, and diseased.

I did not become discouraged at their being slow to wake up, but kept right on, both silently and aloud, declaring words of Truth until the organs responded. And neither did I forget to tell them that they were free, unlimited Spirit. I told them that they were no longer in bondage to the carnal mind; that they were not corruptible flesh, but centers of life and energy omnipresent.

Then I asked the Father to forgive me for taking His life into my body and using it so wastefully. I promised Him that I would never, never again retard the free flow of that life through my mind and my body by any false word or thought; that I would always bless it and encourage it with true thoughts and words in its wise work of building up my body temple; that I would use all diligence and wisdom in telling it just what I wanted it to do.

I also saw that I was using the life of the Father in thinking thoughts and speaking words, and I became very watchful as to what I thought and said.

I did not let any worried or anxious thoughts into my mind, and I stopped speaking gossipy, frivolous, petulant, angry words. I let a little prayer go up every hour that Jesus Christ would be with me and help me to think and speak only kind, loving, true words; and I am sure that He is with me, because I am so peaceful and happy now.

I want everybody to know about this beautiful, true law and to use it. It is not a new discovery but, when you use it and get the fruits of health and harmony, it will seem new to you, and you will feel that it is your own discovery.

About the Author

Myrtle Fillmore (1845-1931), author, editor, teacher, and spiritual advisor, was the cofounder with her husband Charles, of Unity School of Christianity. In the article "How I Found Health," Myrtle tells the story of her personal recovery from the illness that inspired the Fillmores' spiritual quest and led to the founding of Unity. The article was first published in Unity Magazine in 1897 and has been continuously in print as a pamphlet since the early 1900s. As part of the Unity Classic series, this article presents important beliefs and ideas of one of Unity's cofounders. Like those of any movement, Unity teachings evolve over time, and the material included here represents the author's interpretation of Unity teachings at a given period in Unity history.

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