THE WORKINGS OF THE BRAIN Doctors say that eighty per cent of all illnesses are of psychosomatic origin. This means that our thought processes cause illnesses. There are specific organic illnesses, but our thought processes cause most diseases. I have quoted this before where Émile Coué, a French psychologist, pharmacist, and hypnotist who introduced a popular method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion, experimented with this and started clinics in many places. He worked on one formula: on waking up and before going to bed, you repeat to yourself repeatedly that day by day, in every way, I am getting better and better. “I am getting better and better.” When this thought, because of repetition, because of adding emotion to this thought, by adding power to it so that it is deeply felt, that thought will be believed by the mind. When the mind or the brain mechanism believes something or is convinced of something, it acts upon it. For example, if a person wants to go on a diet to lose some weight, they are usually told to eat slowly and chew thoroughly. The psychological reason for this is in the fact that we have been used to eating in a certain way: that a morsel of food we chew for, say, thirty times, and it sends a signal to the brain that after eating twenty morsels and multiplying those thirty times twenty, six hundred, the brain registers that you have chewed six hundred times. Then, the brain, in turn, sends a signal to tell you that your stomach is full. When you eat fast and chew less, you consume more food because the brain has not yet received the signal of the number six hundred. When you eat slowly and chew more of the same morsel of food, you have been chewing it thirty times before swallowing it; now, you chew that same morsel sixty times and swallow. The brain, the calculator there, calculates how many times you chew. So, when it reaches six hundred, it sends off the signal to say you are full, yet you have only consumed half the amount of food. That is how the brain works in every way. THE MEDICATION IS ONLY HALF THE CURE; THE BODY IS EQUIPPED TO CURE ITSELF In the thought process of good health or ill health, man can control illnesses and alleviate a lot of the suffering that he suffers. By thinking negatively, having the mind feel that the body is sick, and repeating that thought, “Oh, I am sick, I am sick, I am sick, I am sick, I am sick,” you will become sicker. That is true. If a person comes to me and says, “Oh, you do not look too well today; you have exhausted yourself,” I sometimes feel like slapping him, although I will not do it. If I see a person not looking too well, there will always be something in that person that I will talk about that will be well and set his mind off. Any nurse or doctor here in the audience will bear me out. Ask a nurse. She will tell you that when you visit the patient in the morning, you put on a lovely big smile, a sincere one, of course, and you say to the patient, “Ah, you are looking fine today.” And you smile, and the patient smiles. That is half the cure. Not only the medication. When a person is ill, we go to a doctor. The medicines a doctor gives only help in the curing process. No doctor can cure you with the chemicals he gives you. The body is equipped to heal itself. The body is equipped with the mechanism that rights the imbalance within it if given a chance by a positive thought. ON THE SPIRITUAL PATH, ALWAYS SEEK GOOD AND HOLY COMPANY The same thing applies to religion, and the same thing applies to a person on the spiritual path. Ancient sages have said that a person on the spiritual path must always try to keep holy company, where things of a higher nature are discussed. Have friends. Have a friendly circle where things of a spiritual nature are discussed. Therefore, I encourage the groups to meet every week. We have this in South Africa, Rhodesia, Spain, and England, where they chant and meditate and listen to a tape. I have made over one hundred twenty tapes, and I was very surprised to hear that very few of them, just the earlier ones, were released here. Of course, those were just very elementary because I had to start people off at a certain level and progressively go deeper and deeper into various subjects. All the tapes should be distributed so that you can have the theoretical background of our teachings. When these groups gather in England and other places, they chant and meditate together. Group meditation is always beneficial and good because many minds are tuned to the same purpose here. A togetherness, a family feeling develops. So, you can call it a beautiful social evening if you want to. Then they listen to a tape, they could listen to a long one or a short one, whichever they like. After that, there is always coffee, biscuits, and refreshments; it is a well-spent evening. That, too, can be regarded to be holy company. Did Christ not say, “When two people are gathered in my name, I am there”? This is what is meant. So, on the spiritual path, too, let us always be in such company where things of a higher level are discussed and thought about. But if we drive every night down the wharf area in San Francisco and places like that, the mind could never be tuned to higher things. A PERSONAL ANGLE ON HEALTH Likewise, the principle is the same, not only on the spiritual path but also as far as health goes: if we train our minds to health, we