Rule six
A careful diagnosis of the disease, based on the ascertained outer symptoms, will be simplified to this extent that, once the organ involved is known and thus isolated, the center in the etheric body which is in closest relation to it will be subjected to methods of occult healing, though the ordinary, ameliorative, medical or surgical methods will not be withheld.

I am handicapped greatly as a I seek to lay the foundation for this new approach to medicine. I am handicapped by the idealistic pronouncements of the pioneers in the new fields of nature healing, by the naturopaths, and by the [272] premises of Christian Science and the Unity Schools. All that I can do (if you are to profit by my presentation) is to lay down certain broad and general assumptions which will govern the medical men of the future. But in the interim period between the old and the new eras, men will wander in a fog of speculation; a great conflict will be engineered between the fundamentalist schools and the speculators and the investigators of the new ideas, and temporarily the "noble middle path" of the Buddha will be forgotten.

The surest and least speculative field in medical practice is that which is concerned with the surgical relief of the patient; it is founded on a sure knowledge of anatomy, its diagnosis of requirements can be intelligently controlled, and [273] its practice (when in the hands of a sound and reputable surgeon) can and frequently does produce a cure or a real prolongation of life. However, even in that field little is known about the results of an operation as it may affect the etheric body and (consequently) the nervous system through the intermediate system of the "nadis" or the etheric counterpart of the nerves. I would instance the removal of some organ. Definite results must necessarily be present and a period of difficult adjustment must inevitably take place within the subtle mechanism of the patient. The area of the body which has received surgical treatment, and particularly the center in closest relation to it, must be affected, for the circulatory flow of energy, emanating from the center, will find itself "short circuited," if I could use such a phrase. This flow, which has hitherto passed through the area of surgical attention, must work its way to all parts of the body, via the "nadis"; these, as you know, underlie and feed the needed energy to the nervous system. Old channels for the flow of energy will have been removed, as the result of operative measures, major or minor. New channels or lines of force, bridging the "mutilated" area, will have to be established and a basic adjustment will have to be made within the vital mechanism of the patient. Along this line there is practically nothing as yet known. It is not even yet in the field of advanced research.

The new medicine cannot be scientifically formulated or intelligently presented until such time as the fact of the etheric body is accepted and its existence, as a mechanism of energy supply and as the vital aspect of the outer form, is generally recognized. The shift of the attention of the medical profession will then be away from the outer, tangible, physical effects and to the inner causes, as they are to be found in the centers and their related fields of activity. [274]