Part 22 · Nearer Than Breathing · points 16–23 of 31 in this Part

Perfect images before intelligent cells

Change the rate of vibration and you change the thing vibrating.

8 numbered points · 2 study questions · 1 min read

⚠ Read this before you start: This one is not medicine

"Every cell responds to the images presented to it" is poetry with a clinical risk attached: it invites you to treat a body problem as a mind problem. Bodies get ill for reasons that have nothing to do with your inner life. If something in your body is wrong, the answer is a clinician — every single time.

The one line to keep

Change the rate of vibration and you change the thing vibrating.

Brain cells are constructed the same way as everything else — by what they are given. Mental action is a rate of vibration; a higher rate governs and modifies a lower one; the rate is governed by thought. Since we know how to create brain cells, we know how to make any physical change we decide to make. Haanel builds this as a chain of reasoning, each link ordinary, the conclusion considerable.

Why this matters — Part 22

If you have been carrying guilt or shame, there is a sentence in this level that can be the beginning of setting it down: the power that made you is nearer to you than your own breath, and it is not waiting for you to become worthy of its attention. You do not have to reach it. You cannot get closer than speech, than thought. Say what is true, right where you are, without cleaning yourself up first.

Study questions for this sublevel

Haanel put a review question at the end of every part. Answer out loud first — the recall is what moves it into memory.

216. Why does this govern?

Because a higher rate of vibration governs, modifies, controls, changes, or destroys a lower rate of vibration.

217. Is this system of mental therapeutics generally recognized?

Yes, there are literally millions of people in this country who make use of it in one form or another, and obviously many more world- wide.

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Haanel's own words — points 16–23

Quoted exactly from The Master Key System (1912, public domain). The translation above is ours; this is his.

Therefore, when perfect images are placed before the subjective, the creative energies will build a perfect body.

Brain cells are constructed in the same way. The quality of the brain is governed by the state of mind, or mental attitude, so that if undesirable mental attitudes are conveyed to the subjective, they will in turn be transferred to the body. We can therefore readily see that if we wish the body to manifest health, strength, and vitality, this must be the predominant thought.

We know then that every element of the human body is the result of a rate of vibration.

We know that mental action is a rate of vibration.

We know that a higher rate of vibration governs, modifies, controls, changes, or destroys a lower rate of vibration.

We know that the rate of vibration is governed by the character of brain cells.

We know how to create these brain cells.

Therefore, we know how to make any physical change we desire in the body, and having secured a working knowledge of the power of mind to this extent, we have come to know that there is practically no limit which can be placed upon our ability to place ourselves in harmony with Natural Law, which is omnipotent.

Put it to work

This week's exercise

Speaking (Part Twenty-Two)

Usual seat. Relax completely.

See all steps

Sit with it

Guided stillness timer

The sit is the whole foundation of the course: still body, watched breath, no phone. Pick five minutes if fifteen feels like a hill.

Open the timer

Keep going

1Thought and the body ⚠Health is a rate of vibration — and thought sets the rate.2The cause is always in the world withinEvery cell is intelligent and will respond to the picture you place before it.3Perfect images before intelligent cells ⚠Change the rate of vibration and you change the thing vibrating.4Mental therapeutics ⚠Physicians treat nervous disease as bodily. The patient's own mental state is half the case.5This week: speak to HimCloser than breathing — so there is no distance to cross before you speak.

Part 22 · Nearer Than Breathing

Nothing you have done has disqualified you

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