# Wallace D. Wattles Ultimate Collection — Chapter-89: Sleep - **Source**: /library/Wallace D. Wattles Ultimate Collection/source-file.pdf - **PDF pages**: 365–370 - **Pages without text**: none - **Note**: Work: *New Science of Living and Healing*, section 2 of 9. --- 2. SLEEP. Table of Contents He giveth His beloved sleep.—Ps. 127:2. IN THE PRECEDING CHAPTER we considered some of the arguments for the new physiology, which holds that vital energy is renewed in sleep, and is not generated by the digestion of food. Man is not, as we have been taught to suppose, an engine whose power comes from the combustion of fuel, or food. If he were, he would never need rest or sleep; supplied with food he could keep on eating and working indefinitely, as an engine can work indefinitely if it is supplied with coal; whereas no matter how much or how often he eats, we know that he must have frequent lapses into the silence and unconsciousness of sleep in order to recharge his brain with that mysterious energy by which he lives and works. We find by observation that the fact that vital power is received in sleep is universal with all forms of life. Men, animals, reptiles, fish and insects sleep; and plants sleep also. You will notice that I speak of vital power as being received, not generated; if the law of the conservation of energy holds good as applied to the energy displayed by the human body,then the energy of man is received from some source outside himself; for it is a mechanical impossibility for the organism to generate within itself the power to maintain itself, renew itself, and perform external work also. The human body cannot be regarded as being anything but a machine; and since it is found to be impossible for a machine to operate itself, and to do additional work with power generated by its own operation, 1 am compelled to accept the hypothesis that there is an inflow of life, which is received by all living organisms during sleep. Let me write this again, and call your attention to it for it is the greatest and most important scientific fact that has been given to the world in a century. There is an inflow of vital power, which is received by all living organisms during sleep. I do not know where this inflow of life comes from; I do not know whether it results from some combination of other forces or is a force which is eternally selfexistent I am simply stating the facts as I observe them, and giving the inevitable deductions from them; if the facts disprove the theories you have been holding, you will have to readjust your theories to fit the facts. It is a fact that the human body cannot possibly manufacture its own vital power and at the same time be manufactured by its own vital power; and it is a fact that it receives its vital power in sleep; and necessarily, from some source outside itself. Life comes to us from somewhere; we do not make it; we receive it. I do not say that it is received only in sleep; I do not know but that there are conditions under which we may receive it when awake. Neither do I say that we always receive it directly from the unknown source; there may be individuals who can become so charged with it as to be able to communicate it to others; I do say, however, that no individual has power to create it in himself; he can only give what he has received, so that ultimately we all receive from the unknown source. Now, as to the importance of all this. Hold up your finger, and examine it carefully. What made it? It is made of different chemical elements taken from the food you have eaten; but what combined those elements and built them into a finger? Life! You slept, and your brain was charged with power; that power was applied to the stomach and bowels and digested your food; it took the separate elements and emptied them into the blood; your heart, which beats by brain power, forced them along through the arteries until they came to the finger; and vital energy from the brain built them into bone, muscle, nerve and connective tissue. Life built the finger; and nothing but life can make another like it. All the science in the world cannot duplicate it; we may make something which looks very much the same, but it will not be like your finger at all. Be careful, therefore, about the gentleman who tells you that he has a "remedy" which will renew your finger or fix it up all right if there is anything the matter with it. Nothing can repair or renew the finger but the force which created it—vital power. Nothing can make a finger, nothing can mend a broken or injured finger, and nothing can cure a sick finger but life. There is no remedy, and no known force that can unite a broken bone save life only; and there is no remedy and no force that can make a heart beat save life only. Nothing ever made a heart beat but life; all the other powers in the world cannot send a single pulse-throb through the arteries of a dead body. No medicine ever made your heart beat, and none ever will; nothing ever made a heart beat but vital power. The force which operates your heart is stored in your brain during sleep. The only manner in which a medicine could make your heart beat would be by causing the vital power to flow from your brain to your heart. I do not say that medicine can or cannot do this; I will touch upon this point again. What is true of the heart is necessarily true of every other organ of the body; they are all operated by brainpower, and cannot be operated by any other power. We hear certain medicines spoken of as having power to move the bowels; but a little study must convince us that the only power on earth which can move the bowels is that which is stored in the brain. If a medicine causes the bowels to move it must do so by causing the brain to move them; you understand that I do not say that it is impossible for medicine to do this; I simply say that it is impossible that it should be done in any other way. The vital power which is stored in the brain during sleep is the only power capable of producing functional action in any part of the body. Your heart, stomach, liver, kidneys and bowels are not separate and independent machines, operated by different and extraneous powers; they are all parts of one machine, which is run by brain- power; and the brain is charged in sleep. Now, if there is defective action, or congestion, or inflammation, or pain in any part of the body, the only possible way to effect a cure is by directing the brain- power to the affected part. If a medicine can do this it is of value, provided its benefit be not neutralized by reactionary or other effects. Local applications produce their curative effect in this manner; a mustard plaster cannot increase functional action in the organs over which it is applied, but it is possible that by it a chemical effect upon the tissues may cause the brain to turn its power in that direction, and so increase functional action. This is the only theory of medical action which is in accord with the facts; and we must apply it also in explaining the effects of exercise and massage. Neither exercise nor massage can build up a weak part; but either may cause the brain to build it up, by directing its power to it. Mental healing is accomplished in exactly the same way; it is done by consciously and intelligently directing the brain-power by concentration of mind; and it is by far the most scientific and effective method of healing, when not complicated by speculative absurdities which befuddle the mind and prevent direct and positive action. Now, again, perhaps you do not see the importance of all this. Go back over this chapter, and the preceding one; examine the facts and study the logic of the deductions. You will hardly fail to become convinced that your body is a machine which is operated by power which is stored in your brain during sleep; and that no other agency can heal it, build it up, or keep it well but this brain- power. If you are sick or weak you know now where your cure is to be found; and you are ready to begin to act intelligently. First, if the power which is to heal you is to be stored in your brain during sleep, you had better study sleep, and learn how to surround yourself with favorable conditions for the charging of your storage battery with power; sleep intelligently, and with a purpose, so as to get the best results. There are laws which govern the process of charging the brain with vital force; some of them are known; enough to enable you to set to work with ft reasonable certainty of getting good results. Second, having learned how to charge your brain with vital power you must learn how to conserve the power; how to keep yourself from throwing it away, and expending it uselessly; and this is more important, perhaps, than you imagine. Most people waste at least half their vital power. Third, you will need to learn how to turn this force to the part where it is most needed; and this involves the consideration of all medicines, treatments, exercises, and mental processes. What we need above all else is to be scientific in our methods of arriving at conclusions. We must avoid speculation, and fanciful theories based on the supposed need for retaining old medical or religious dogmas, and stick to the facts and to the deductions which are the inevitable corollary of the facts. If the facts do not accord with the teaching of the doctor and the physiological authorities, we will have to disbelieve the doctor and the authorities, and accept the facts; and if the facts disagree with the dogmas of the preacher we will have to ask the preacher to revise his dogmas; we must keep to the facts. And here, again, are some of the facts, and some of the things which the facts prove: In death by starvation the brain loses no weight, but is nourished at the expense of the other tissues of the body. Death does not come so long as there are other tissues available for the brain to feed upon. This proves that the brain, not the stomach is the alpha—the center of vital power. The structure of the body goes to prove that the brain is the power-plant; the afferent nerves carrying sensation in, and the efferent ones carrying power out. It is an absurdity to suppose that muscular power is generated by the muscles themselves; it is far more reasonable to assume that power is transmitted to them over the nerves in a manner similar to the transmission of power over an electric wire. The strength of the body is not drawn from food; because (a) It would be impossible to extract the amount of energy displayed by the body from the quantity of food consumed; (b) Work-power does not increase in proportion to the quantity of food digested; (c) If work-power came from food we would not be obliged to sleep for the purpose of renewing our strength; and (d) The digestion of food is work in itself, and requires the expenditure of power; it cannot, therefore, be done with power drawn in the ultimate from its own processes. Work cannot do itself with power furnished by itself. It is a manifest impossibility that the body should work with energy manufactured by its own internal processes, which are themselves a part of its work, and consume its power. Lastly, we see that every living thing goes regularly to sleep, and wakes with renewed energy. From all this we deduce: That the external work of the human organism is done, and its internal processes carried on by means of a vital energy which is accumulated in the brain during sleep. That this vital energy is the only power by which the body may be healed, repaired, renewed or maintained. Were I to adopt a pet idea as so many people do, and fondle it in my embraces to the exclusion of all others, it would be, that the great want which mankind labors under at this present period is sleep. The world should recline its vast head on the first convenient pillow and take an age-long nap. It has gone distracted through a morbid activity, and while preternaturally wide awake, is nevertheless tormented by visions that seem real to it now, but would assume their true aspect and character were all things once set right by an interval of soul repose. — HAWTHORNE, "Mosses from an Old Manse" The mind grows wiser by watching, but her sister, the body, of coarser materials, needs the support of repose. — SCOTT, "Talisman"