William Atkinson (1901)
In these days of toxin and antitoxins —of poison in sausages, oysters, canned beef, ice cream—of antitoxin serums (that often are more deadly than the original toxin) for the prevention and cure of tuberculosis, pneumonia, typhoid fever, tetanus, bubonic plague, diphtheria, and the rest of the list, it requires courage to call the attention of the public to a new “toxin,” even if at the same time we furnish an antitoxin that “anti‑toxicates.”
We shudder at the thought of microbes and bacilli—and thereby attract them to us; we filter our drinking water, after boiling all the life out of it; we develop into microbe hunters, and see poison in everything we wear, eat, drink or breathe. But we overlook the microbes in the thoughts we think. We encourage the enterprising doctor in his giddy chase after the nimble dollar, as he produces antitoxin serums to order. The poor, broken‑down cart horse is worked overtime in producing filthy pus and serum for the serum‑maniac to inject into our circulation. But we overlook the pure, harmless, powerful antitoxin obtained fresh from the cells of the brain — Right Thinking.
That Thoughts may poison, is a well‑proven fact. Depressing thoughts interfere with the cerebral circulation, impairing the nutrition of the cells and nerve centers. The result is that the organs and tissues manifest lost or impaired function—loss of general nutrition follows—and a breakdown is inevitable. Fear, worry, anger, envy, jealousy, and other negative thoughts reflect themselves most disastrously in the human system. Fear has paralyzed nerve centers and turned the hair white overnight. A mother’s milk has been poisoned by a fit of anger. Fear and Hate —father and son— have produced insanity, idiocy, paralysis, jaundice, sudden decay of teeth, fatal anemia, skin diseases, erysipelas, and eczema. Epidemics owe their rapid spread and heavy death rate to Fear and Ignorance. Epidemics may kill their dozens — Fear kills its thousands. All the brood of negative, fearful, selfish, hateful thoughts manifest themselves in physical conditions. Stigmata or marks upon the body, caused by fear or desire, are quite common in the annals of medical science and psychology.
Professor Gates, of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., in his investigation of the effect of mental states upon the body, found that irascible, malevolent, and depressing emotions generated in the system injurious compounds, some of which were extremely poisonous; he also found that agreeable, happy emotions, generated chemical compounds of nutritious value, which stimulated the cells to manufacture energy. He says: “Bad and unpleasant feelings create harmful chemical products in the body, which are physically injurious. Good, pleasant, benevolent feelings create beneficial chemical products which are physically healthful. These products may be detected by chemical analysis in the perspiration and secretions of the individual. More than forty of the good, and as many of the bad, have been detected. Suppose half a dozen men in a room. One feels depressed, another remorseful, another ill‑tempered, another jealous, another cheerful, another benevolent. Samples of their perspiration are placed in the hands of the psychophysics. Under his examination they reveal all these emotional conditions distinctly and unmistakably;” Remember, this is not “the airy fancy of some enthusiastic Mental Scientist,” but is the testimony of a leading scientific investigator in the laboratories of the Smithsonian Institution, one of the best known scientific institutions of the world. “Chemical analysis,” mind you— not “transcendental imaginings.”
Now I have said enough about the toxin and some little about the antitoxin of the Mind. I might go on for hours, stating example after example; illustration after illustration, but the tale would be just the same. Now, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to keep on poisoning yourself and those around you with vile, malignant thoughts reeking with the miasmatic effluvia of Hate — emitting the noxious exhalation of Fear and Worry? Or will you cease being a psychic pest‑house, and begin to fumigate and disinfect your Mind? And after getting rid of all the microbes of Fear and Worry and the bacilli of Hate, Jealousy, and Envy, open wide the windows of the Mind and admit the bright Sunshine of Love, and the bracing air of Confidence and Fearlessness.
Come, friends, let us get out of this habit of poisoning the air with Fear, Worry, and Hate Thought. Let us join the ranks of the Don’t Worry company — the Fearless brigade — the invincible, conquering army of Love. Let us be bright, cheerful, and happy — the other things are not worthwhile. Let us be Confident, Expectant, Hopeful, and Fearless — these things are winners. Let us be filled with Love for all men — and we will find that Life is one sweet song. Love, Faith, and Fearlessness are the ingredients of Life’s great Antitoxin. Try it and be blessed.
William Atkinson, December 1901.