As you read this book you may well ask yourself the questions above. It may seem at times that we wander away from what are usually considered subjects related to health and happiness. Yet when you come to understand the nature of these two more clearly, you will come to realize that we did not miss the mark all that much.

Health is not simply the absence of a named disease. Real health is a state of physical, mental and emotional vibrancy that allows the individual to have freedom and vigor to fulfill all his creative desires.

Happiness is a state of mind that is the result of true health, as defined above, a clear conscience (from following the Divine Law), being loved (and loving in return) and, finally, being able to fulfill our constructive creative desires and ambitions.

Neither true health nor happiness are dependent on earthly wealth or fame, though in and of themselves these are not to be dismissed as automatic obstacles to either. The life and recent death of a young attractive English princess should be ample proof to all of us of the fragility of both temporal fame and wealth. However, if by following the Divine Law an individual is able to develop both fame and fortune, he does have the opportunity to be a great beneficial force in the world if he uses them in worthy endeavors.

How Do We Find Health?

As we seek that perfect health we want to keep in mind this axiom: We are not meant to be sick and weak. We were created to be healthy and strong like our Creator. It is our nearly constant attempt to circumvent the Divine Law (both individually and as a species) that has brought into the world all those things that cause us to have less than perfect health. Conversely, true and lasting health can be known only by following the Divine Law. All other options are only temporary and lead to further degeneration and sorrow down the road.

"But," you say, "we live in a world full of agents that can make us sick. Where did these come from if not from God?" the answer is - they came from us. That is, from our attempts to circumvent the Divine Law. These have the power to set into motion the forces that are able to create such entities. Basically all these agents come from some sort of filth or stagnation. The Black Plague was caused by a germ that lived on a flea the lived on a rat that lived on the filth left by the humans of the Middle Ages. Once this form of filth was cleaned up the Black Plague was over and many other similar conditions prevented.

The same is true in all such matters. Do not mosquitoes live and thrive in stagnation? Remove the stagnation and the mosquitoes, along with the diseases they bring, disappear. We all find flies a distress, but remember, they must law their eggs on putrid decaying matter. Clean up and remove this matter and flies will be a thing of the past.

The ultimate answer to all health problems is to clean up filth whether it be of the physical, mental, emotional or spiritual world. The ancients had this sort of "cleanliness" in mind when they coined the phrase, "cleanliness is next to Godliness." To be truly clean is to be one who obeys the Divine Law, and one who does this will eventually come to have powers like God Himself, although to a lesser degree, of course.

When the Creator placed us on this Earth He also placed around us all those items needed for our growth and development. We are not unique in this way; He did exactly the same for every other being He created. Thus, every being in the world had around it the sustenance needed for its optimum growth and development. That is, it did until man for various reasons decided to change things around a bit, believing that he could improve on the gifts of God. In this way foods were changed to meet the needs of the marketplace rather than the needs of body and mind. The results of this tapering have brought us to our present state of humanity where man's efforts have created a vast number of chronic diseases for which we have no satisfactory cures.

Another important cause of ill health is mental and emotional pollution. As man begins to deviate more and more in mind and soul from the pure simplicity of the Divine Law, he becomes mired in the tar pits of sophistry and personal speculation. The first American Supreme grand Master of the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis, Paschal Beverly Randolph, used to speak of these individuals as being "entangled in the meshes of the intellect." It's a very good description of the chaotic state produced when we attempt to explain life without an understanding of the Divine Law. Unlike man, God works with simple but powerful forces. Man likes complexity, under the misconception that the more complex a mechanism the more useful and powerful it must be. God knows that in truth, the opposite is the fact.

Simplicity is power. The greatest power we know does not reside in the tides or the volcano, but it is the simple magnificent force that animates all growing things - the power that can take a seed stored for centuries and bring it to life when the proper requirements are met. This is real power. It is the same power that heals our bodies. Without this power all physicians would be impotent to heal. It is the power on which all true health and happiness are founded. It is this power that the natural physician attempts to use in his treatments. We will not say "cures," because all true cures can come only from the efforts of this power within the body. The most that any physician can do is to learn to work in harmony with this force and explain to the patient how he or she may do so as well.

There can be no lasting health without mental health and there can be no mental health without an understanding of the Divine Law, since this is the Law of our being. These are the rules of the game. It is the set of instructions given by our Creator for our journey on this planet. With an understanding and eventual following of this Divine Law comes to man all that he is promised in Heaven. This is the only way to this state. All others are only mirages that vanish when we draw nigh.

The health we desire must also include emotional health. Life is full of seeming contradictions and unfair stresses that can bring on emotional instability and declining health. Here again, in our experience, most of these problems develop because of a misunderstanding of the functioning mechanism of earthly life. We find that due to a lack of understanding of the nature of the Divine Law and its application to everyday life, individuals inadvertently enter into contacts, contracts and relationships that are almost certain to cause them unnecessary emotional trauma. We attempt in this work to show everyone some of these pitfalls, but we cannot describe them all here. For those who have trouble with personal relationships, we recommend the text One Flesh.

How Do We Find Happiness?

Abraham Lincoln said this about happiness, "I reckon most people are abut as happy as they make up their mind to be." While I'm certain all of us can find many reasons to consider Lincoln's statement a little too simplistic, we can also agree that it reveals a profound understanding of human nature. Most certainly the converse is true. That is, if someone else can do to move him out of this state. Benjamin Franklin used to say, "Those who have nothing to trouble them will be troubled at nothing." So maybe, just maybe, Old Honest Abe's statement may be truer than we want to believe.

It is, however, much easier to be happy if certain other factors are in place in our lives. As mentioned earlier, happiness is much easier to achieve if we have good health. Therefore, in all the ancient arcane philosophies as well as in the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis today, the student is first taught the laws of good health. These include proper diet, breathing, bathing, good sleep habits, the correct use of work, exercise and rest, the value of constructive creativity and learning and finally the use of healing mantras to coordinate all the other factors. It is for this reason that this book is not just entitled In Search of Happiness. We have seen very few truly happy people who did not also have a degree of health that allowed them to engage in the "pursuit of happiness." In this we are in harmony with Saint John when he states, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."___John 13:17.

Next to health, and sometimes even before it, true happiness requires a clear conscience. The reason for this is simple: If we have wronged another, our Divine spark, speaking through the conscience, will not let us rest until we have made full restitution. The only exception to this rule is in the case of an individual who has so weakened the voice of his conscience that it cannot break through the mountain of debris heaped upon it.

When I was a young doctor I had a woman patient who should have improved under my treatment, but did not. One day she confided to me that she had an elective abortion when she was young and the thought of it still haunted her. Whenever she would see a baby in real life or TV it would remind her of her act and throw her into a depression. At the time I knew her this stain on her conscience was well entrenched, and there was little anyone could do to remove it.

This woman and others in similar situations helped me to develop a simple piece of advice that I give to both my spiritual students and patients alike - "Try never to do anything you can't undo." I realize there are times when emergency decisions must be made that might jeopardize this principle, but even in such matters it is wise to think long and hard to see if there is not another way before deciding. My personal motto is Semper Via Est - "There is always a way." the old adage, "Act in haste repent at leisure," is till not a good one to ignore.

How do you know what will adversely affect the conscience and what will not? The answer comes in learning to understand and obey the Divine Law. Every time we do that which is right and just, it becomes easier to do it the next time and our conscience will be relieved. If in doubt at any time, then use the simple guide taught by all the true messengers of the Creator: "do not do to others that which you would not have them do unto you." The Golden Rule! Simple and true. If you do your level best to follow this guide, along with whatever else you can find of value in this book, you will not go too far astray and your conscience will allow you to sleep like a baby at night.

We are told that God is love. Most certainly love, real love, is about the only thing in life that lives up to its publicity. Too often, however, we expect to find a love that will make us happy. The problem is that everyone else is looking for the same thing. Everybody is willing to be loved, but true happiness is in the loving as well as the being loved. There is the story of the man who met a friend who was looking for the perfect woman. On meeting hem again a few years later he asked him if he had found her. His friend answered in the affirmative. "Well, what happened?" the man asked. "Nothing," said his friend, "she was looking for the perfect man."

To be loved we must become lovable, and this we are able to accomplish by learning to place all in the proper perspective. As we are able to understand the Divine Law more fully and live in harmony with it, we come to think more and more of the needs of others and finally discover a more interesting fact - as we learn to live for others, all those things we sought in life, particularly happiness, come to us in the most unexpected ways. That is not to say that we are to give up our talents and dreams for those of others. No, that is personal treason; but we must learn that it is possible to assist others in their pursuit of happiness while we seek our own. Always seek the win-win answers to all problems, for when the right thing is done all will, and should, benefit.

We are made in the image of God. He is the ultimate Creator, but we have the ability and power to create using the same forces He does. This is our destiny. This is the reason for life and our gift of free will. No man can be truly happy if he is not fulfilling his reason for returning to this Earth. The Biblical story of the talents demonstrates this very well. He who will use the talents given him by the Creator to the fullest will be rewarded with even more talents and opportunities. This is the simple fundamental working of the Divine Law. To be happy we must create what ever we came to Earth to create. This may be a book, a painting, a bridge or a new rose. The creation is up to the individual, and God in His wisdom, knowing that the world needs many things, has given His children a wide variety of talents to help enrich His Creation. The particular talent is not the important part; the effort is; the fulfillment of the dream is.

Actually, it is usually not so much the goal that brings happiness to man, but rather the journey toward the goal. I was always impressed by the renewed enthusiasm in Sherlock Holmes when there was a problem to solve. His famous words, "Let's go, Watson, the game's afoot," ring in my ears to this day, even though it must be half a century or more since I first read them. As soon as the "game" was over and the riddle solved, Holmes would slip into a form of depression that was only temporarily relieved by the cocaine needle. The only way Sherlock Holmes found to really correct his depression was to become involved in a new game, a new challenge.

So it is in our own lives: to be truly happy, we want to learn to derive joy form the game, the chase, and not so much from the accomplishment. Man is programmed this way by God so that he will keep busy at his efforts to perfect the world given him by his Creator. If our happiness came from the goal, we would stop there and we would all still be living in caves.

Conclusion

There are many roads to individual health and happiness, but as described in this chapter, to be enduring they must all be based on the universal law of our nature - the Divine Law. With this book, we are devoted to helping you in your own pursuit of both health and happiness. In this search we will take you on quite a roller-coaster ride, so hang on tight, and we promise that the search will be useful to you in your pursuit of Health and Happiness.
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