This chapter is intended for people who are worried about something. I never tell people not to worry. To do that is to kick a man when he is down. Is it to be supposed that he is worrying for the fun of the thing, because it amuses him? If so, the malady would not be worry, and would call for different treatment. Of course there are people who grumble and whine because they like to do so. That is a bad condition to be in, and urgently needs attention, but it is not a case of worry.

No, worry is hell, and a hell from which the victim is only too delighted to escape when he sees the faintest shadow of a chance. Is it really possible to get rid of worry? That depends altogether on whether or not you understand the Truth of Being. If you do, the answer, is Yes.

Consider the following: A bogey that you do not believe in has no power to hurt you or worry you. The Bogey Man who lives under the cellar stairs cannot frighten or deceive you now, because you do not believe in him; but when you were three years old it was very different. Then he had the power to raise your heartbeat to a gallop, draw all of the blood out of your cheeks, set your knees knocking together, and literally curdle the food in your little stomach. Given favorable conditions he could have stopped your heart altogether and killed you. Yet today he cannot cause one flicker of an eyelash—because you do not believe in him. That is the whole difference. Nothing in reality has changed. There is no Bogey Man there, and there never was one at any time; the difference is in you. You have now changed your thought. You have found that he was only a bogey, and so you are free.

Now it is exactly the same with any other kind of evil that may seem to be showing itself in your experience, for all evil is a bogey. It is there only because you believe in it, and it will disappear directly you cease to believe in it. The only “life” it has is what it receives from you. The only power it has over you is what you give it in belief.

Any material object or situation can be changed into something else by Spiritual Treatment or Scientific Prayer. No matter what the present state of any object, say an organ of the body, may be, it can be changed for the better by Scientific Prayer. No matter what may have taken place at some past time, it can now be changed into a different happening by Scientific Prayer. No matter what might happen tomorrow, without prayer, it can be made to happen quite differently by means of Scientific Prayer. Your sprained ankle, or the consequences to you of having ruined your frock with the ink-bottle, can be completely transformed by Scientific Prayer. Law week’s law-suit, or next week’s operation, and all possible consequences arising therefrom, can be completely wiped out of consciousness, everybody’s consciousness; or they can be changed in character so that they are seen as a blessing for all concerned. It sometimes happens, for instance, that you buy some article, paying, perhaps what is for you a considerable sum of money for it, only to discover when you have got it home that you have changed your mind, and wish, too late, that you had not bought it. Never mind. Pray scientifically, and you will presently perceive that it was the right thing to get after all, and you will rejoice over the purchase, or in some other way you will obtain satisfaction concerning it. Of course, matters can only be changed for the better by Scientific Prayer.

Since these things are true, and they are, it becomes clear that the material plane cannot be “real” in the sense of being fixed or permanent; and once we grasp this fact it no longer has any power to hurt us. The truth is that our material conditions have no identity in themselves, being but the outpicturing of the convictions in our minds, and, as we always have the power to change our convictions, it follows that we can always change the outer picture too.

So your present trouble, whatever it is, is exactly like the Bogey Man under the cellar stairs. It is only a bogey, and the only power it possesses is the power you are giving it by believing in it. You must stop believing in it, and to do this it is only necessary to pray enough, or to get someone else to do it for you, and that unhappy picture will change, gradually or quickly, into something quite different from what it is now, or else disappear altogether.

With sufficient Scientific Prayer you can even make it vanish completely from memory, but that will probably not be necessary. You do not want to forget the Bogey Man under the stairs; you are quite indifferent about him because you really do know that he is only a myth.

Now you will see why it is possible to get rid of worry. When you can say confidently: “Yes, at the moment this looks a bad business, but I know that by an active spiritual treatment I can change it into quite a different situation,” real worry is at an end for you, and it is only a question of time before all-around health, happiness, and prosperity become the rule of your life.

“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous (Right Thinker) runneth into it and is safe.”

EMMET FOX